“All the things that happened there just couldn’t happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and… — Betty Smith Dreamer Copy Share Image
“Oh well, this is only temporary. Everything will be better someday. I'll make it better. After all, I'm young yet.” — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
And that's where the whole trouble is. We're too much alike to understand each other because we don't even understand our own… — Betty Smith Self Copy Share Image
It's come at last", she thought, "the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache. — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“There had to be the dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background its flashing glory. a” — Betty Smith Dark Copy Share Image
“The child will grow up and find out things for herself. She will know that I lied. She will be disappointed." "That… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“After Election, the politicians forgot their promises and enjoyed an earned rest until New Year, when they started work on the next… — Betty Smith Democracy Copy Share Image
There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it… — Betty Smith Brooklyn Copy Share Image
“If I open this envelope fifty years from now, I will be again as I am now and there will be no… — Betty Smith Life Copy Share Image
Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all… — Betty Smith Brooklyn Copy Share Image
“I don't know. Sometimes I think it's better to suffer bitter unhappiness and to fight and to scream out, and even to… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
I came to a clear conclusion, and it is a universal one: To live, to struggle, to be in love with life--in… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
Intolerance is a thing that causes war, pogroms, crucifixions, lynchings, and makes people cruel to little children and each other. It is… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“A song that Johnny sang once,” explained Katie. As Francie wrote the name, she heard the chords; she heard her father singing,… — Betty Smith Better world Copy Share Image
“Mother! Katie remembered. She had called her own mother "mama" until the day she had told her that she was going to… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“School days went along. Some were made up of meanness, brutality, and heartbreak; others were bright and beautiful because of Miss Bernstone… — Betty Smith Learning Copy Share Image
“Francie always remembered what that kind teacher told her. “You know, Francie, a lot of people would think that these stories that… — Betty Smith Lies Copy Share Image
“Everything was changing. Francie was in a panic. Her world was slipping away from her and what would take its place? Still,… — Betty Smith Bible Copy Share Image
“A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment,… — Betty Smith Compassion Copy Share Image
“Hildy O’Dair is old for her age,” she thought. “It’s like powder was sprinkled on her yellow hair. But she’s not much… — Betty Smith Best friend Copy Share Image
“She wasn’t satisfied with the play she saw the following Saturday, either. All right. The long-lost lover came home just in time… — Betty Smith Landlord Copy Share Image
“He fussed and argued and finally went away saying he’d bring back the deed. Mama sent Francie over to Sissy’s house to… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Sissy told them they were way behind the times; that midwives were things of the past. Besides, she informed them proudly, she… — Betty Smith Judaism Copy Share Image
She was made up of more, too. She was the books she read in the library. She was the flower in the… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“You must teach the child of the signs that come to the women of our family when there is trouble and death… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“An eleven-year-old girl sitting on this fire escape could imagine that she was living in a tree.” — Betty Smith Girl Copy Share Image
Well' Francie decided, 'I guess the thing that is giving me this headache is life - and nothing else but'. — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
She was surprised at how tiny the school seemed now. She supposed it was just as big as it had ever been… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“You must learn to take a joke, Francie, otherwise life will be pretty hard on you.” — Betty Smith Comedy Copy Share Image
Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on… — Betty Smith Earth Copy Share Image
“She loved the library and was anxious to worship the lady in charge. But the librarian had other things on her mind.… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“You're not to cry for him,' ordered Mama. Her next words had no sense either. 'He's out of it now and maybe… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Who'd ever guess," said Francie, ¨looking at the outside of him, that he was so different inside?¨” — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
How much do they be paying you?" he asked mellowly. "The usual salary. A little more than they think I'm worth and… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“When I grow up and know that I am going to have a baby, I will remember to walk proud and slow.” — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“But in their secret hearts, each new that it wasn't all right and would never be all right between them again.” — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“When night draws back the curtain, And pins it with a star, Remember you are still my friend, Though you may wander… — Betty Smith Friend Copy Share Image
“She sat in the sunshine watching the life on the street and guarding within herself, her own mystery of life.” — Betty Smith Life Copy Share Image
“In the winter, when the first snow was too delicate to last on the sidewalks, it clung to the rough surface of… — Betty Smith First snow Copy Share Image
People looking up at her--at her smooth pretty vivacious face--had no way of knowing about the painfully articulated resolves formulating in her… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
