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The Value Of A Smile

9/13/2025

4 Comments

 
Picture of a happy smiling in a blue business suit with a matching necktie and a white shirt, and the words, Visit www.MakeFunOfLife.net.
​The Value Of A Smile
 
A smile costs nothing, but creates much.
 
A smile enriches those who receive without impoverishing those who give.
 
A smile happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
 
None are so rich they can get along without a smile, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.
 
A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
 
A smile is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature’s best antidote for trouble.
 
Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen; for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody ‘til it is given away.
 
For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give.
 
By Frank Irving Fletcher:  advertisement for Oppenheim, Collins, & Company
 
Frank Irving Fletcher was born on 5 June 1881 in Yorkshire, England and baptized into the Episcopal Church. He immigrated to the United States of America in about 1902 in response to an advertisement for a job, but when he arrived, the job had long since been taken. He stayed in America, and eventually started working in advertising in 1911. He went on to become a successful freelance copywriter of advertising for leading specialty retail shops in New York City, including Saks & Company (later Saks Fifth Avenue), where he was the Advertising Manager. His autobiography is titled “Lucid Interval: Confessions of a Custodian of the Convictions of Others” (1938). Frank Irving Fletcher passed on at 82 years of age 26 June 1963 in New York City, New York, United States of America.
google.com, pub-5004046848211730, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
4 Comments
Jenni Elliott link
6/26/2023 11:05:49 am

It was my understanding that this peom was written by Dale Carnegie not Frank Irving Fletcher.

Am I wrong?

Reply
Mordechai Welt
2/10/2024 10:51:53 am

In his bestselling 1936 book, "How to Win Friends & Influence People", Dale Carnegie features this poem in his chapter on "A Simple Way to Make a Good First Impression." He does not, however, quote the source nor the author of this poem other than to say it was promoted during the Christmas season by a major New York city department store.

Reply
Philippe D.
6/27/2024 08:51:55 pm

Actually, you'll find that it was written in French back in about 1920 by Raoul Follereau in his book "Le Livre d'Amour".

Reply
Chief Funologist link
9/15/2025 11:42:42 pm

Some sources credit the poem “The Value of a Smile” to Raoul Follereau, who was born on 17 August 1903 in Nevers, France. He supposedly dedicated his life to fighting social injustice, misery, fanaticism, and the selfishness of the rich and powerful. His first book in which the poem ‘Un Sourire,’ or ‘A Smile,’ is claimed to have appeared was called the “Livre d’Amour,” or “The Book of Love” (1920), published when he was 17 years of age. Because “The Book of Love” is out of print and possibly no copies exist, it cannot be proven that ‘A Smile’ is contained within its pages. Raoul Follereau passed on at 74 years of age on 6 December 1977 in Paris, France.

Note: A different poem, with the same title, “The Value Of A Smile,” By Wilbur D. Nesbit, can be found at www.MakeFunOfLife.net/everyday-inspiration/the-value-of-a-smile-by-wilbur-d-nesbit.

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