Betty Smith Quotes

A small child has little idea of the future. Next week is as far ahead as his future stretches and the year between Christmas and Christmas again is an eternity.

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 selves.

Before you die, you must own a bit of land—maybe with a house on it that your child or your children may inherit. Katie laughed. Me own land? A house? We’re lucky if we can pay our rent.

Filth, filth, filth, from morning to night. I know they're poor but they could wash. Water is free and soap is cheap. Just look at that arm, nurse.'The nurse looked and clucked in horror. Francie stoo...

Forgiveness, said Mary Rommely, is a gift of high value. Yet its cost nothing.

From that moment on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again.

Going home in the trolley, Francie held the shoebox in her lap because Mama had no lap now. Francie thought deep thoughts during her ride. 'If what Granma Mary Rommely said is true, then it must be th...

How much do they be paying you? he asked mellowly.The usual salary. A little more than they think I'm worth and a little less than I think I'm worth.

I need someone, thought Francie desperately. I need someone. I need to hold somebody close. And I need more than this holding. I need someone to understand how I feel at a time like now. And the under...

It was a good thing that she got herself into this other school. It showed her that there were other worlds beside the world she had been born into and that these other worlds were not unattainable.

It was the last time she’d see the river from that window. The last time of anything has the poignancy of death itself. This that I see now, she thought, to see no more this way. Oh, the last time how...

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 it's always a mystery. Sometimes I say I don't believe in God and Jesus and Mar...

It's come at last, she thought, the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache.

Katie had married Johnny because she liked the way he sang and danced and dressed. Womanlike, she set about changing all those things in him after marriage.

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...

New York! I've always wanted to see it and now I've see it. It's true what they say-- it's the most wonderful city in the world.

Now his children are getting old too, like him, and they have children and nobody wants the old man any more and they are waiting for him to die. But he don't want to die. He wants to keep on living e...

Oh time...time, pass so that I forget!Oh time, Great Healer, pass over me and let me forget.

Oh, and you must not forget the Kris Kringle. The child must believe in him until she reaches the age of six.Mother, I know there are no ghosts or fairies. I would be teaching the child foolish lies.M...

Our family used to be like this strong cup, thought Francie. It was whole and sound and held things well. When papa died, the first crack came. And this fight tonight made another crack. Soon there wi...