A smile is a simple yet beautiful expression of joy, pleasure, and happiness. The act of smiling has the ability to enhance your mood, elevate stress, and even boost your immune system. However, on the same breath, it’s scary what a broken smile can hide. We’ve all felt compelled to fake a smile at one point or another in our lives. Read on to discover the reasons for faking a smile and how to spot when someone is faking happiness and forcing a smile. You will also find a list of quotes about fake smiling, hiding pain quotes, and sad smile quotes for when you’re looking for the words to express what you’re really feeling inside.

💔 🖤 💔

Smiling with Pain

Many people, despite pretending to be happy outwardly, struggle with negative emotions, anxiety, and depressive thoughts.

This is often accompanied with feelings of irritability, hopelessness, fear, fatigue, uneasiness, and even anger. This may seem counterintuitive as depressed people are usually thought of and portrayed as unable to function from day-today, even bed-ridden and certainly not smiling.

Does it seem possible that a person may be smiling and hiding a whole lot of pain at the same time?

Yes, and there is even a term to describe this behaviour, known as “smiling depression.” This is the definition: “smiling and appearing happy, content, and on top of the world to others, while internally suffering and conflicted.”

Sadness is the core of smiling depression.

The external façade is in complete conflict with how one feels inside and the smile is used as a defence mechanism in an attempt to hide their true feelings. It is important that if you feel this way, particularly over an extended period of time, to never discount your true feelings or brush them aside, but to acknowledge them and to seek help.  

If you can’t get enough of this good stuff, be sure to check out this ultimate list of famous smile captions and quotes about smiling that would be perfect as inspiration and for use on insta.

Or how about these:
behind my smile quotes,
words to motivate you to keep smiling always, and
funny smiling quotes

Reasons why people fake it

There are a plethora of reasons why one may want to put on a fake smile.

It helps with avoiding unnecessary questions or conversations that one does not want to have or is not ready to have yet.

Maybe you’re faking a smile to lessen the awkwardness of social interactions and to appear more approachable.

It could be that you’re feeling stressed out and trying to cheer yourself up.

You could be faking a laugh at a joke that’s just not funny. 

You may be going through a rough time, but still want to appear in control, so you fake it.

Maybe that broken smile is to make someone close to you feel better about their own situation. 

These quotes are all about the smiles we fake to hide what we’re really feeling inside.

How to spot a fake smile

Not everyone can tell when happiness is being faked, especially strangers or friends that don’t really know you that well. But, there are a couple ways to tell a fake smile from a real one.

Following real genuine emotion and happiness, a signal is sent to the left anterior temporal region of the brain, during which two muscle groups react. The cheek region which pull the facial muscles back and curl the lips upwards and the orbicularis oculi muscles which contract, pulling the skin and forming wrinkles on the outer region of the eyes. 

There’s more to smiling that simply looking presentable in front of others or for the camera. Smiles that are forced are noticeably different from genuine smiles. Other facial muscles are used instead of the cheek and eye socket muscles to imitate their movement.

Here’s how to spot the difference between a fake and a genuine smile:

1 — no visible reaction in the eyes

The absence of movement in the eye region is a pivotal clue that the smile is forced. Without actual positive emotion, the eyes are often left out of the motion entirely. 

2 — Visibility of the bottom teeth

Forced smiles generally result in the lips being pushed out too far apart, resulting in the person’s bottom teeth being visible. This is usually what one would call the cheesy smile that is being faked as the zygomatic muscles are not moving as they naturally would.

3 — Absence of crow’s feet around the eyes

The contraction of the orbicularis muscles during a real smile pulls the skin around the corner of the eyes, resulting in the appearance of wrinkles around the eyes. Without this crow feet you can tell that the smile is forced and that the contour of the face is not flowing naturally as it would during a authentic smile. 

>> Looking for more inspiration? Check out:

Ok, without wasting any more time, let’s get into these…..

FAKE A SMILE QUOTES

How do you express the action behind fake smiling? Continue reading to find out.

You can’t fake a smile forever. Stay strong make them wonder how you’re still smiling

A smile hides my tears
A joke masks my sadness
I’ve banished, locked away my pain deep in my soul’s dungeon
And I’ve thrown away the key
So you can never see
Me cry

I’ve tucked my melancholy beneath
A roughly designed mask decorated with
Pretend jokes
Fake smiles
Phone laughter
Happy lies

You say you know everything about me but in truth
You know nothing at all

I am an imposter

All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul
… and they will never notice how broken you really are.

— Robin Williams

You can fake a smile, but you can’t fake your feelings.

— Aaron Abelson

A fake smile can hide a million tears

A smile is the best way to get away with trouble even if it’s a fake one.

— Peace Pilgrim

She had the prettiest eyes & prettiest smile with wounds on her heart and bruises on her soul

— Tanya Gambhir

>> Laugh out loud with these:
funny road trip questions and car ride trivia

A fake smile rarely makes it to the eyes. The face seems dull instead of full of life.

— Tim Curry

 You should step in my shoes

Walk for a while

and maybe you will see how hard it is

to hold back the tears and fake a smile

 — Elizabeth Panos 

A smile simply does not mean the person is happy. They can be the most upset, angry, and depressed person you have ever seen on the inside. Don’t ignore someone because they are smiling. They might still need you.

She’s hurt, mentally and emotionally but everyday she walks with a smile cause that’s just who she is: the girl who never stopped smiling

Fake a smile. No one knows you’re broken.

— Demi Lovato

No smile is as beautiful as the one that struggles through tears
— Helen Keller

Making me laugh when I didn’t even want to smile was one of your very few skills. And now I have to force a fake smile across my face every single day when in reality the only thing I want to do is cry. I messed things up. I miss you.

When the night falls, all the fake smiles stop and real emotions flow through the eyes.

Sometimes it hurts more to smile in front of everyone, then to cry all alone.

I’ve had a fake smile for so long, I don’t even know if it’s real or not anymore.

I can fake a smile. I can force a laugh. I can dance and play the part if that’s what you ask. Give you all I am. But I am only human. I bleed when I fall down. I’m only human. I crash and I break down. Your words in my head. Knives in my heart. You build me up and then I fall apart.
— Christina Perri

“I miss those days when my smile was real.”

Tired of fake people, fake smiles, fake hugs, fake friends, fake hopes. Sick of crying, tired of trying. Yeah I’m smilin… But inside I’m dying.

I would rather wear honest tears than the most beautiful and elaborately faked smile.

— Tyler Knott Gregson

“It’s getting harder and harder to wear a fake smile everyday because the more I wear it the more I know how much of a lie it is.”

— Jack Davenport

Keeping a smile on your face when inside you feel like dying, for the sake of supporting others is strength.

— Abhishek Tiwari

“Smile, even if it’s fake. Laugh, even if you hurt. Don’t let anyone get to you, you’re beautiful regardless of what anyone says to you.”

— Anurag Prakash Ray

Fake a frown
You hurt others
Fake a smile
You hurt yourself

I guess it’s better to have a chalk smile, than an ink smile. Where chalk changes with the direction of wind, ink stays as a deep stain. Like rain, sun and hail against a fake plant.

— Anthony Liccione

“A fake smile can only be put on for some time. Because they are easily detected and disclosed.”

— Saad Wakeel

“You can fake your smiles and laughter, but you can never fake your tears and feelings.”

Yeah, she’s smiling, but don’t let that fool you. Look into her eyes, she’s breaking inside.

… we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes – this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.

— Paul Dunbar

A fake smile doesn’t make it to your eyes. Real smile is accompanied by smiling eyes.

— Rupert Everett

“I’ve perfected the art of the fake smile. It’s not so difficult when you are completely numb.”

— Bethany Griffin

Smile, even if it’s fake. Laugh, even if you hurt. Don’t let anyone get to you, you’re beautiful regardless of what anyone says to you.

One day, I want someone to look past my fake smile, pull me close and say, you’re not okay

QUOTES ABOUT HIDING PAIN

Take a good look at her beautiful fake smile. If you could read my mind you would be in tears.

Every heart has its pain. Only the way of expressing it is different. Some hide it in their eyes, while others hide it in their smile.

It’s not always the tears that measure the pain. Sometimes it’s the smiles we fake

The prettiest smile hides the deepest secrets.
The prettiest eyes have cried the most tears.
And the kindest hearts have felt the most pain.

Put on your fake smiles and show the world how strong you are of holding the pain inside.

Some girls wear mascara, eye liner, foundation, eye shadow, blush, and all that stuff. To hide what they think is ugly.
My makeup is my smile, every morning I wake up and I put on a smile, to hide all the pain.

You have to learn to smile through your pain. Sometimes it’s all we got.

A fake smile can change the expression of the face, but not the pain of the heart.

Sometimes living is painful, sometimes I can’t hide my sadness, sometimes I can’t fake a smile because I know it’s a lie.

“Smile are like band-aids, they cover up the pain. But still it hurts.”

Sometimes you gotta laugh through the tears, smile through the pain so that you can live through the sorrow.

The heart reeks of sadness and pain, the face exposes the fake happiness that never actually was pride.

“Smiling doesn’t necessarily mean you’re happy. Sometimes it just means you are strong.”

A smile that hides the pain within the heart soothes the hearts of those who behold it. So smile even through difficult times.

“Sometimes it’s not the tears from our eyes that shows our pain, but the fake smile on our face for the world to see.”

To die in love for someone is not the big thing. To live with that pain with a smile forever is the great real achievement.

Faking a smile can only hurt yourself, with so many problems to fear and so much pain to bear. At the end, leading to your thousands tears, nevertheless there will always be one person or two who will give their best to console you.

Don’t smile to hide the pain. Smile to heal the pain.

Anybody can laugh in joy, but the bold ones also smile in pain… knowing that pain is just like a zooming train, that will soon pass by.

Because sometimes you put on a smile, even though you’re going through tough times, but if we look past the smile, we would notice all the pain inside.

“A true friend is someone that sees the pain in your eyes, unlike the other people who believe the fake smile on your face.”

We can always smile, but that doesn’t mean that our hearts are not shedding tears.

She fakes a smile and says she’s okay. But in reality, she barely made it through the day.

I have faked my smile so much that even I’m starting to believe I am happy.

There’s a lot of people out here faking a smile on their face like they got it together but inside are actually suffering from some sort of traumatic experience, a loss, are depressed, fearful, envious or whatever the case may be, but I can feel it.

— Summer Walker

Smile when in pain, smile when troubles pour like rain. Smile after someone has hurt your feelings, because you know, smiling always starts the healing.

I put on my shoes and a big, fake smile. I laughed on the outside while I screamed on the inside. My body was in the restaurant but my mind was in hell.

— Michelle Hodkin

“Smile, because it confuses people. Smile, because it’s easier than explaining what is killing you inside.”

QUOTES ABOUT FAKING HAPPINESS WITH A HIDDEN SMILE

Sick of crying. Tired of trying. I’m still smiling. But inside I’m dying

Behind my smile is everything you’ll never understand.

Each heart has pain
Only the expression is different
Some hide it in their eyes
Others hide it behind their smile

People may be smiling, but look to the eyes because they can’t hide the sorrow, pain, and heartache they’re trying to hide behind their smile.

“Behind all my fake smiles is a lonely heart waiting for someone to cheer me up.”

I can calculate everything even the velocity of light but can’t calculate the Hate of people behind their smile.

— Albert Einstein

“I’m a simple person who hides a thousand feelings behind the happiest smile.”

It’s funny how I hide my feelings behind my smile everyday and no one ever seems to notice.

I hide hurt behind a fake smile. I wear it all the time. Everyone says how I always look so cheerful. Shows what they know I guess.”

— Ellen Hopkins

Hide your craziness behind a beautiful smile. That’s all you need.

— Paulo Coelho

“Hide all your problems behind your sweetest smile. Because there is no one to help you out in your problems. You alone have to face it. So face it with a smile.”

— Anurag Prakash Ray

Only a best friend can see the pain behind a fake smile.

Behind every fake smile is a broken heart.

If you look at her closely
You can see that
Every now and then
She turns away from her group of friends
Her smile fades
And she becomes another person for a few seconds
A sad person
A person who is broken and damaged
And after a few depressing seconds
She goes back to the group
Smiling and joking around
She almost looks like she's actually happy
But if you look at her closely
You can see how fake her smile really is
And you can see all the wreckage behind her "smile"

“You look at me and think, ‘he’s so happy,’ but there’s so much behind this fake smile that you will never know.”

Just because a person smiles all the time doesn’t mean their life is perfect. That smile is a symbol of hope and strength.

“He frowned. She laughed. He brightened. She pouted. He grinned. She flinched. Come on: we don’t do that. Except when we’re pretending. Only babies frown and flinch. The rest of us just fake with our fake faces. He grinned. No He didn’t. If a guy grins at you for real these days, you’d better chop his head off before he chops off yours. Soon the sneeze and the yawn will be mostly for show. Even the twitch. She laughed. No she didn’t. We laugh about twice a year. Most of us have lost our laughs and now make do with false ones. He smiled. Not quite true. All that no good to think, no good to say, no good to write. All that no good to write.”

— Martin Amis

I’m sad, hurt, angry, mad, and disappointed, but you know what ? I’ll put on a smile and move on, it will hurt, but I will survive.

I have many problems in life. But my lips don’t know that. They always smile.

— Charlie Chaplin

“Just because I am smiling doesn’t mean I am happy, Because it takes just one smile to hide a million tears.”

“During the day you see her smile, at night tears run down her face.”

True friends sometimes quarrel, but will never part. Fake friends will always smile with you, but will keep stabbing you in the back.

“The deepest wounds are covered up by a smile.”

“How many more of us are faking the facade? How many more of us are pretending to be something we’re not? Even better, how many of us will have the courage to be ourselves regardless of what others think?” 

― K McGarry

“Smile, smile, smile at your mind as often as possible. Your smiling will considerably reduce your mind’s tearing tension.”

— Sri Chinmoy

Gimme an honest frown over a false smile, any day.

— Gregory Roberts

You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it’s just teeth.

— Chuck Palahniuk

“Someone who smiles too much with you can sometime frown too much with you at your back.”

— Michael Johnson

I have perfected the art of the fake smile. Inside your heart may be bruised and black, but outwardly you look bright and happy.

— Cindy Vine

I’m ready to get up and start my day
Put on a fake smile and pretend I’m okay.

>> I dare you not to smile for real while checking out these incredibly unusual
weird foods of the world

—> Head up. Stay strong. Fake a smile. Move on. Continue reading…

FAKE SMILING QUOTES

Yes, I can smile, but it’s so easy to fake it. Yes, I can act like I’m happy, but inside I’m falling apart.

I’ll fake all the smiles if it stops all the questions.

“Here I was again tonight forcing laughter, faking smiles. Same old tired, lonely place.”

— Taylor Swift

It’s not a fake smile, it’s called having manners and being polite. It’s a human instinct.

— Daniel Craig

Being who you are is a lot easier than faking it.

— Adam Lambert

I’m getting less good at faking it. People in my family are noticing and asking what’s wrong. My friends give me invitations to talk, to cry. I love them for their caring, but I want to run from it. I have lost their language, their facility with words that convey feelings. I am in new territory and feel like a foreigner in theirs.

— Martha Manning

“Some fake happiness, some fake sadness and some fake an orgasm.” 

― Dominic Riccitello

Smile, so the tears don't fall
Laugh, like you don't hurt at all
Fake it so he'll never know...
That you still haven't let him go

 — Anthony Euwer

Half smiles were lazy. They were fake. Either smile with your soul or don’t bother. Probably why I hadn’t smiled since I was six. My soul was dead.

— Pepper Winters

“Grownups are so tiresome. They fake their smiles all day long and they try to force us to do the same. It’s no fun at all.”

— Bisco Hatori

Some people can put on a fake smile and pretend that nothing is wrong. But there are some people who have a lot going on in their life and nothing people can say or do can distract them from reality.

Genuine happiness is not nearly as common as a fake smile.

Bear with me while I plaster on a fake smile and plough through this s* one more time.

— Bill Hicks

Fake hair, fake nails, fake eye lash, artificial face and sometimes fake behavior, yet a woman will say she needs a real man.

The faking of feelings is a sin against the imagination.

— Seamus Heaney

“He gave her a bright fake smile; so much of life was a putting off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing was ever lost by delay. He had a dim idea that perhaps if one delayed long enough, things were taken out of one’s hands altogether by death.”

— Graham Greene

Faking is a social activity in which people act together to draw a veil over unwanted realities and encourage each other in the exercise of their illusory powers.

Roger Scruton

The worst crime is faking it.
— Kurt Cobain

“Dear today,
I spend all of you pretending i’m okay when i’m not, pretending i’m happy when i’m not, pretending about everything to everyone.” 

― Nina LaCour

In my own case, I had to train myself out of that phoney smile, which is like a nervous tic on every teenage girl. And this meant that I smiled rarely, for in truth, when it came down to real smiling, I had less to smile about. My ‘dream’ action for the women’s liberation movement: a smile boycott, at which declaration all women would instantly abandon their ‘pleasing’ smiles, henceforth smiling only when something pleased them.

Shulamith Firestone

Plastering on my “everything is okay” fake smile is too much right now, so I make every effort just to keep my lips from slipping into their default frown.

— Danielle Pearl

Smiling is cheap, that is why many people can afford it.

I slapped a big fake smile on my face like I did every day, as a cam girl, as a barista, as anything, because women are taught to smile, that smiling means men are less likely to hurt us.

— Leah Raeder

“My grandma has fake teeth but her smile is real”

— Jason Myers

Everything looks so much brighter today. The sky is a magnificent cobalt blue, the clouds look like puffy white marshmallows, and I’m happy. not the fake, suck-it-up-and-put-a-smile-on-your-face-happy. Really happy. For the first time in a long time.

— Beth Michele

“What makes big boobs and perkiness so attractive to boys? I mean, really. Two round, mounds of fat and a fake smile. Yeah, winning attributes.”

— Gena Showalter

Why should i have a fake smile on my face ,
If my heart and soul is suffering in unrest.
it's not my duty to entertain you
But its my responsibility to be honest and original

— Mohammed Zaki Ansari

“I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile because it’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself. A mouth-smile is different. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I’ve also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it. So watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you but his eyes stay the same. It’s sure to be a phony.”

— Roald Dahl

“I can’t really act the way I want to act, or say what I want to say all the time. And a lot of times, I cover that up with a smile.”

– Hilary Duff

The boobs are real, the smile is fake.

A fake smile can prevent something bad from happening, but it can also create further misunderstandings.

— Saadat Khan

“When your job is what defines you, when that is the be-all and end-all of your existence, what does a fake smile and a sallow look matter. You have to save your job to keep body and soul together, don’t you?”

— Andy Paula

The best way to escape reality without running is smiling, even if it is obviously fake.

If I’m happy, you can tell, and there’s no way of faking it.

— Floor Jansen

You can only put on a fake smile for so long, then the truth begins to be disclosed. 

— John Corner

“Juniper laughed for real, but one of those fake smiles he considered a plague of the Caucasian race followed. If you’re sad, be sad, he wanted to say.”

— Jo Ann Mapson

“It was like his loneliness connected them more intimately and deeply than someone she could have known for years. Like she and Ben skipped over all the stuff people usually do when they first meet. All the fake smiles and putting their best foot forwards. As if they’d jumped right to knowing each other so well they could themselves even when they weren’t at their best.”

— Amanda Gray

If someone gives you a fake smile, don’t ask why.
Just smile back, and you will find they will be smiling for real.

Plastic people flashing fake smiles at a pretend world.

— Steven James

SAD BROKEN SMILE QUOTES

Smiling has always been easier than explaining why you’re sad

Not everybody smiles from happiness. Some smile to hide their tears.

“Smile, even if it’s a sad smile, because sadder than a sad smile is the sadness of not knowing how to smile.”

“A long sleeve, a fake smile, and everyone thinks you’re fine.”

“Sometimes life brings you to such a pathetic situation that you feel smiling is far better than explaining why we are sad.”

Smiling with sad eyes I’ve seen what you’ve been hiding

— R.H. Sin

The girl who seemed unbreakable
Broke.
The girl who seemed so strong
Crumbled.
The girl who always laughed
Cried.
The girl who never stop trying
Finally gave up.
She dropped the fake smile and a tear rolled down her cheek and she said “I can’t do this anymore”

I am intrigued by the smile upon your face, and the sadness within your eyes.

— Jeremy Aldana

 “It’s easy to smile just to make other people feel better. But when a person fakes happy, it has edges. Regular people may not see, but the people who count, they can see the edges and the lines where your smile ends and the real you, the sadness or the anger begins.”

— Heidi W. Durrow

“She hurts and she cries, but you can’t see the depression in her eyes, because she just smiles…”

“Don’t lose the positive power to make right choices that will convert your tears into smiles.”

“You could have a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eye.
But only a true friend knows you’re really about to cry.”

A strong woman is one who is able to smile this morning like she wasn’t crying last night. Girls know how to fake smiles. Guys know how to fake feelings.

Sometimes all you can do is smile. Move on with your day, hold back the tears, and pretend you’re okay.

“I’m tired of trying. I’m tired of crying. I know I’ve been smiling, but inside I’m dying.”

“I feel so depressed. I have to be merry and bright while I just want to cry.” 

― Iris Murdoch

I smile not for that I am happy, but sometimes I smile to hide sadness.

— Rahim Chamkanai

 A dolphin’s smile is the greatest deception. It creates the illusion that they’re always happy.

— Ric O’Barry

“I cursed him then, not because his tears were fake, but because they were real. I cursed him for showing me, with every tear and every smile and every sincere emotion he had, that I was the real freak.”

— Dan Wells

The fake smile is in place. The tears are well hidden. My eyes show nothing. But my voice has a story to tell.

I don’t remember the time where a smile actually meant happiness sadly, so many of my peers only smile to hide things”

— RH Sin

Just because a person smiles all the time doesn’t mean their life is perfect. That smile is a symbol of hope and strength.

Anyone can smile on their best day. I like to meet a man who can smile on his worst.

— Lauren Graham

I've lied to you 
The same way that I always do 
This is the last smile 
That I'll fake for the sake of being with you

— Linkin Park

“I despise the rituals of fake friendship. I wish we could just claw each other’s eyes out and call it a day; instead we put on huge radiant smiles and spout compliments until our teeth hurt from the saccharine sweetness of it all.”

— Jody Gehrman

Someday, everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding your self that everything happens for a reason.

— John Mayer

The saddest people smile the brightest.

That’s about it for now. Over to you. What is your favourite quote about keeps smiling? Let me know in the comments below. Before you go, be sure to check out this list of quotes about smiles for even more motivation.

If you’ve enjoyed this list of positive inspiration, please don’t forget to share/PIN this. Thanks guys 🙂

Always remember, nothing is more beautiful than a smile that has struggled through tears.

Stay real, 

Rai