Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth and by flexing muscles throughout the mouth. Some smiles include contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes (see 'Duchenne Smiling' below). Among humans, it is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, or amusement, but can also be an involuntary expression of anxiety, in which case it is known as a grimace. Smiling is something that is understood by everyone despite culture, race, or religion; it is internationally known. Cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communication throughout the world. But there are large differences between different cultures. A smile can also be spontaneous or artificial.
Read more about Smile.
Famous quotes containing the word smile:
“Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, “just in case” in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Why do you smile that liverish smile?
Why do you double over in a spaz and a swoon,
gurgling on my past, my grief, my bile?
Am I a joke?
Am I a gas?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)