Betty Smith > Quotes

“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“He made good money and wasn't home much. He was an ideal husband.”
― Betty Smith

“The world was hers for the reading”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“But they were made out of thin invisible steel.”
― Betty Smith

“Education! That was it! It was education that made the difference! Education would pull them out of the grime and dirt.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“If it had been a girl, Margy reasoned, someone would warn her sooner or later not to grow up like her mother. But no one would talk like that to a boy. And even if they did, a boy wouldn't care as much as a girl would”
― Betty Smith, Tommorow Will be Better

“Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.”
― Betty Smith

“Katie had a fierce desire for survival which made her a fighter. Johnny had a hankering after immortality which made him a useless dreamer. And that was the great difference between these two who loved each other so well.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“There had to be the dark and muddy waters so that they sun could have something to background its flashing glory.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“She looked across the yards and saw that Florry was still staring at her through the bars of the fire escape. Francie waved and called:

"Hello, Francie."

"My name ain't Francie," the little girl yelled back. "It's Florry, and you know it, too."

"I know," said Francie.

She looked down into the yard. The tree whose leaf umbrellas had curled around, under and over her fire escape had been cut down because the housewives complained that wash on the lines got entangled it its branches. The landlord had sent two men and they had chopped it down.

But the tree hadn't died... it hadn't died.

A new tree had grown from the stump and its trunk had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no wash lines above it. Then it had started to grow towards the sky again.

Annie, the fir tree, that the Nolans had cherished with waterings and manurings, had long since sickened and died. But this tree in the yard- this tree that men chopped down... this tree they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump- this tree lived!

It lived! And nothing could destroy it.

Once more she looked at Florry Wendy reading on the fire escape.

"Good-bye, Francie," she whispered.

She closed the window.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk. She was all of these things and of something more. - Ch. 8”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“Only let me be every something blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.”
― Betty Smith

“Sometimes I think it's better to suffer bitter unhappiness and to fight and to scream out, and even to suffer that terrible pain, than just to be... safe.”
― Betty Smith

“She exchanged her tenderness for capability. She gave up her dreams and took over hard realities in their place.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she was tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography.”
― Betty Smith

“Francie knew that autumn had come. Let the wind blow warm, let the days be heat hazy. Nevertheless, autumn had come to Brooklyn. - Ch. 56”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“Most women had the one thing in common: they had great pain when they gave birth to their children. This should make a bond that held them all together; it should make them love and protect each other against the man-world. But it was not so. It seemed like their great birth pains shrank their hearts and their souls. They stuck together for only one thing: to trample on some other woman... whether it was by throwing stones or by mean gossip. It was the only kind of loyalty they seemed to have.

Men were different. They might hate each other but they stuck together against the world and against any woman who would ensnare one of them,”
― Betty Smith

“The child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Una persona que supera su ambiente por la cuesta del esfuerzo y el dolor puede tomar dos caminos: olvidar su pasado, o recordarlo siempre y conservar en el alma compresión y compasión por aquellos que dejó atrás en su doloroso ascenso”
― Betty Smith, 布鲁克林有棵树

“If it had been a girl, Margy reasoned, someone would warn her sooner or later not to grow up like her mother. But no one would talk like that to a boy. And even if they did, a boy wouldn't care as much as a girl would.”
― Betty Smith, Tommorow Will be Better

“To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory - Ch. 55”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“Why can't they," she thought bitterly, "just give the doll away without saying I am poor and she is rich? Why couldn't they just give it away without all the talking about it?”
― Betty Smith, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

“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.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“I wait for death with the courage I gained from living.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

“When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard.”
― Betty Smith

“Oh time...time, pass so that I forget! You’ll be happy again, never fear, but you won’t forget. Mother was wrong, she had to be wrong. Francie wanted to forget. It was four months since she had known him, but she couldn’t forget. Happy again, but you’ll never forget. How could she be happy again if she couldn’t forget? Oh time, great healer, pass over me and let me forget.” Ch. 55”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“She looked across the yards and saw the Florry was still staring at her through the bars of the fire escape. Francie waved and called:

"Hello, Francie."

"My name ain't Francie," the little girl yelled back. "It's Florry, and you know it, too."

"I know," said Francie.

She looked down into the yard. The tree whose leaf umbrellas had curled around, under and over her fire escape had been cut down because the housewives complained that wash on the lines got entangled it its branches. The landlord had sent two men and they had chopped it down.

But the tree hadn't died... it hadn't died.

A new tree had grown from the stump and its trunk had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no wash lines above it. Then it had started to grow towards the sky again.

Annie, the fir tree, that the Nolans had cherished with waterings and manurings, had long since sickened and died. But this tree in the yard- this tree that men chopped down... this tree they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump- this tree lived!

It lived! And nothing could destroy it.

Once more she looked at Florry Wendy reading on the fire escape.

"Good-bye, Francie," she whispered.

She closed the window.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Low Price CD by Betty Smith

“The world was hers for the reading.”
― Betty Smith, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

“Dear God, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well-dressed. Let me be sincere- be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.”
― Betty Smith, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN