“Money! Would that make it better for them? Yes, it would make it easy. But no, the money wouldn't be enough… That… — Betty Smith Education Copy Share Image
Occasionally there is a moment in a person's life when he takes a great stride forward in wisdom, humility, or disillusionment. For… — Betty Smith Breaths Copy Share Image
“She loved books. She loved them with her senses and her intellect. They way they looked and smelled; the way they felt… — Betty Smith Book Copy Share Image
No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“you’ll always come out all right – no matter what. You’re like me that way.’ And that’s where the whole trouble is,”… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Somehow during their aimless but oh-so-significant conversation with its delicious pauses and thrilling undercurrents of emotion, they came to know that they… — Betty Smith Communication Copy Share Image
“Why can't they," she thought bitterly, "just give the doll away without saying I am poor and she is rich? Why couldn't… — Betty Smith Doll Copy Share Image
“Why should I want to cheat you, Mrs. Nolan?” he asked plaintively as he put the money away carefully. “Why should anyone… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Oh, and you must not forget the Kris Kringle. The child must believe in him until she reaches the age of six."… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Growing up spoiled a lot of things. It spoiled the nice game they had when there was nothing to eat in the… — Betty Smith Big things Copy Share Image
“Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the… — Betty Smith Book Copy Share Image
“Filth, filth, filth, from morning to night. I know they're poor but they could wash. Water is free and soap is cheap.… — Betty Smith Better world Copy Share Image
“If what Granma Mary Rommely said is true, then it must be that no one ever dies, really. Papa is gone, but… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“No, Katie never fumbled. When she used her beautifully shaped but worn-looking hands, she used them with surety, whether it was to… — Betty Smith Heart Copy Share Image
“Going home in the trolley, Francie held the shoebox in her lap because Mama had no lap now. Francie thought deep thoughts… — Betty Smith Deep thought Copy Share Image
There is here, what is not in the old country. In spite of hard, unfamiliar things, there is here - hope. In… — Betty Smith Carpenter Copy Share Image
Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no… — Betty Smith Adversity Copy Share Image
“Laurie's going to have a mighty easy life all right. Annie Laurie McShane! She'll never have the hard times we had, will… — Betty Smith Easy life Copy Share Image
“Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
Mother, I am young. Mother, I am just eighteen. I am strong. I will work hard, Mother. But I do not want… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“I believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and His Mother, Holy Mary. Jesus was a living baby once. He went bare-footed like… — Betty Smith Believe in god Copy Share Image
“Oh, magic hour when a child first knows it can read printed words! For quite a while, Francie had been spelling out… — Betty Smith Books Copy Share Image
“So she learned ways of conserving bits of seconds. Long before the train ground to a stop at her station, she pushed… — Betty Smith Fitness Copy Share Image
...the reading, the observing, the living from day to day. It was something that had been born into her and her only… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Most women had the one thing in common: they had great pain when they gave birth to their children. This should make… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“Anybody," said Johnny, carried away by his personal dream of Democracy, "can ride in one of the hansom cabs, provided," he qualified,… — Betty Smith Dreams Copy Share Image
“Sissy had two great failings. She was a great lover and a great mother. She had so much of tenderness in her,… — Betty Smith Beautiful flowers Copy Share Image
“Sissy had two great failings. She was a great lover and a great mother. She had so much of tenderness in her,… — Betty Smith Agape Copy Share Image
“If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful,” said Katie. “But because there… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“And the sleds! (Or, as the Williamsburg children called them, the sleighs.) There was a child’s dream of heaven come true! A… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“She knew from listening to her grandmother that old age was made up of such remembrances of youth. But she didn’t want… — Betty Smith Grandmother Copy Share Image
“She liked numbers and sums. She devised a game in which each number was a family member and the “answer” made a… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“When Francie brought a ticket and a dime back and pushed them across the counter, he gave her the wrapped shirt and… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Although Katie had this same flair for coloring an incident and Johnny himself lived in a half-dream world, yet they tried to… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“She looked at the nurse. To Francie, all women were mamas like her own mother and Aunt Sissy and Aunt Evy. She… — Betty Smith Compassion Copy Share Image
People always think that happiness is a faraway thing," thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can… — Betty Smith Blue Copy Share Image
It's a beautiful religion and I wish I understood it more. No, I don't want to understand it all. It's beautiful because… — Betty Smith Beautiful Copy Share Image
“Before school, there had to be vaccination. That was the law. How it was dreaded! When the health authorities tried to explain… — Betty Smith Children Copy Share Image
“I drink because I don't stand a chance and I know it. I couldn't drive a truck and I couldn't get on… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
“Her time has come," answered Miss Lizzie. "That's why I didn't marry Harvey - long ago when he asked me. I was… — Betty Smith Copy Share Image
