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

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing," thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains - a cup of strong hot coffee when you're blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you're alone - just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness.”

PeopleThinkingMenLittlesBookHardStrongRainHotBlueComplicatedCoffeeCupsContentmentLittle ThingsShelterCigaretteSomeone You Love
Book:A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN MAGGIE NOW
Create image

“It's come at last," she thought, "the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache. When there wasn't enough food in the house you pretended that you weren't hungry so they could have more. In the cold of a winter's night you got up and put your blanket on their bed so they wouldn't be cold. You'd kill anyone who tried to harm them - I tried my best to kill that man in the hallway. Then one sunny day, they walk out in all innocence and they walk right into the grief that you'd give your life to spare them from.”

MenGivingChildrenEnoughLastsNightHouseWalksGriefColdBedWinterHarmHungryInnocenceYour ChildrenHeartacheSparesBlanketSunnyHallwaysSunny Day
Author:Betty Smith
Create image