Quotes from Betty Smith

Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.

But this tree in the yard-this tree that men chopped down...this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up it's stump-this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.

I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock embedded in its flank was wonderful.

It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch.

It meant that she belonged some place. She was a Brooklyn girl with a Brooklyn name and a Brooklyn accent. She didn't want to change into a bit of this and a bit of that.

A child forgets a time of hunger but never forgets the aching want of other things.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.

Well, there's a little bit of man in every woman and a little bit of woman in every man.

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 understanding must be part of the holding.

Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing.

People always think that happiness is a faraway thing, 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 youre blue;a book to read when youre alone - just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness.