Quotessence
Home / Authors / Betty Smith
Betty Smith

Betty Smith Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleBrooklynChildrenLittlesBookReadingSufferingWorldGrowing UpMenFirstsMadeTreeWantBeautifulHardHeartIfsKnowsThinking

Famous Betty Smith Quotes

“There is here, what is not in the old country. In spite of hard, unfamiliar things, there is here - hope. In the old country, a man can be no more than his father, providing he works hard. If his father was a carpenter, he may be a carpenter. He many not be a teacher or a priest. He may rise - but only to his father's state. In the old country, a man is given to the past. Here he belongs to the future. In this land, he may be what he will, if he has the good heart and the way of working honestly at the right things.”

IfsMenWayHeartMayCountryHardStatesPastFatherGivenTeacherLandHard WorkHonestlyRight ThingSpitePriestsProvidingUnfamiliarCarpenterGood Heart
Book:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Create image

“She went out and took a last long look at the shabby little library. She knew she would never see it again. Eyes changed after they looked at new things. If in the years to be she were to come back, her new eyes might make everything seem different from the way she saw it now. The way it was now was the way she wanted to remember it.”

IfsWayYearsLooksLittlesLongDifferentSeemsMightEyeWantedLastsRememberSawsChangedLibraryNew ThingsShabbyNew Eyes
Book:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Create image

“Francie was ten years old when she first found an outlet in writing. What she wrote was of little consequence. What was important was that the attempt to write stories kept her straight on the dividing line between truth and fiction. If she had not found this outlet in writing, she might have grown up to be a tremendous liar.”

IfsWritingYearsFirstsLittlesImportantStoriesMightFoundLinesFictionTenConsequenceLiarsOutletsDividing
Book:A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN MAGGIE NOW
Create image