1
2
3
5
8
12
20
33
52
83
133
213
340
543
867
1384
2208
3346
3522
4598
4599
4600
4601
4602
5443
5619
6757
7581
8098
8422
8625
8752
8832
8882
8913
8932
8945
8953
8957
8960
8962
8963
8964
8965
▲
▼
| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 4d82a25 | People who believe themselves to be True patriots tend to be zealots. Zealots, in my opinion are one short step from being lunatics. | David Baldacci | ||
| db5c5b0 | All she'd notice was that some things were strange because they reminded her of Brooklyn and that other things were strange because they were so different from Brooklyn. "I guess there is nothing new, then, in the world," decided Francie unhappily. "If there is anything new or different, some part of it must be in Brooklyn and I must be used to it and wouldn't be able to notice it if I came across it." | Betty Smith | ||
| 481dd43 | 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." | Betty Smith | ||
| 59d251d | I'll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books...books...books.... | Betty Smith | ||
| 3a97388 | Run, run, you fool, before the waves of hurt start breaking. | Betty Smith | ||
| bb492fd | They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel. | inspirational women | Betty Smith | |
| ae0555c | 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 pie.. | Betty Smith | ||
| d8bf3a9 | 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. | Betty Smith | ||
| 61d4fb8 | It there's one thing certain, it's that we all have to get old someday. So get used to the idea as quickly as you can. | Betty Smith | ||
| 75fc40e | Wenda's chest and hips shrank, her shoulders and arms turned muscular and her body became lean and hard where it had been rounded and soft. The hair of her head shortened drastically, and a mustache sprouted on her upper lip. Her delicate human feet had become hard hooves. She was now not a nymph but a faun. Physically; she would never be male in spirit. | reversal | Piers Anthony | |
| 2fb2a10 | How did you get hired?" "I checked the box on the application that said "descendant" by mistake. I'm dyslexic and I thought it said something else." "Okay," I said, thinking that was the worst employment application mistake ever. "And they all believe him to be the true ruler of Fallen?" "All the Mei-Bettys do. They're, like, obsessed with it. It's a little like restaurant-of-the-body-snatchers, you know?" "Then why do you work there?" I .. | dark-urban-fantasy demons paranormal prophecy | H.D. Smith | |
| 9a6d51d | I loved driving with Marlboro Man. I saw things I'd never seen before, things I'd never even considered in my two and a half decades of city life. For the first time ever, I began to grasp the concept of north, south, east, and west, though I imagine it would take another twenty-five years before I got them straight. I saw fence lines and gates made of welded iron pipe, and miles upon miles of barbed wire. I saw creeks--rocky, woodsy creeks.. | Ree Drummond | ||
| 88b5d55 | Dear God,' she prayed, 'let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. | god prayer | Betty Smith | |
| a9cf172 | But I saved it for you because I know your mama likes tongue and I like your mama. You | Betty Smith | ||
| 3565de1 | And the child, Francie Nolan, was of all the Rommelys and all the Nolans. She had the violent weaknesses and passion for beauty of the shanty Nolans. She was a mosaic of her grandmother Rommely's mysticism, her tale-telling, her great belief in everything and her compassion for the weak ones. She had a lot of her grandfather Rommely's cruel will. She had some of her Aunt Evy's talent for mimicking, some of Ruthie Nolan's possessiveness. She.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 485c997 | She wanted to shout it out. She could read! She could read! 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 s.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 07bd3d5 | When I grow up and know that I am going to have a baby, I will remember to walk proud and slow.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 4b8e264 | And Francie whispered yeah in agreement. She was proud of that smell. It let her know that nearby was a waterway, which, dirty though it was, joined a river that flowed out to the sea. To her, the stupendous stench suggested far-sailing ships and adventure and she was pleased with the smell. | Betty Smith | ||
| b3ce360 | 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 understading must be part of the holding." | Betty Smith | ||
| 1772888 | It was one of the links between the ground-down poor and the wasteful rich. The girl felt that even if she had less than anybody in Williamsburg, somehow she had more. She was richer because she had something to waste. | pride | Betty Smith | |
| cadbe82 | This is the book, then , and the book of Shakespeare. And every day you must read a page of each to your child--even though you yourself do not understand what is written down and cannot sound the words properly. You must do this that the child will grow up knowing of what is great---knowing that these tenements of Williamsburg are not the whole world." Katie: " The Protestant Bible and Shakespeare." | literacy-children motherhood | Betty Smith | |
| a8f24ef | Her time has come," answered Miss Lizzie. "That's why I didn't marry Harvey - long ago when he asked me. I was afraid of 'that'. So afraid." "I don't know," Miss Lizzie said. "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." She waited until the next scream died away. "At least she knows she's living." | motherhood | Betty Smith | |
| 421302f | Although Katie had this same flair for coloring an incident and Johnny himself lived in a half-dream world, yet they tried to squelch these things in their child. Maybe they had a good reason. Maybe they knew their own gift of imagination colored too rosily the poverty and brutality of their lives and made them able to endure it. Perhaps Katie thought that if they did not have this faculty, they would be clearer-minded; see things as they r.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 8415674 | And the sleds! (Or, as the Williamsburg children called them, the sleighs.) There was a child's dream of heaven come true! A new sled with a flower someone had dreamed up painted on it--a deep blue flower with bright green leaves--the ebony-black painted runners, the smooth steering bar made of hard wood and gleaming varnish over all! And the names painted on them! "Rosebud!" "Magnolia!" "Snow King!" "The Flyer!" Thought Francie, "If I coul.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 8b30a17 | SERENE WAS A WORD YOU COULD PUT TO BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. | Betty Smith | ||
| 77da9ee | They were in Julius Caesar now and the stage direction "Alarum" confused Katie. She thought it had something to do with fire engines and whenever she came to that word, she shouted out "clang-clang." The children thought it was wonderful." -- | Betty Smith | ||
| f0cd284 | Francie nodded shyly. The girl brought an eraser close to the mesh. Francie poked a finger through to touch the vari-colored felt layers blended together by a film of powdered chalk. As she was about to touch this soft beautifulness, the little girl snatched it away and spat full in Francie's face. Francie closed her eyes tightly to keep the hurt bitter tears from spilling out. The other girl stood there curiously, waiting for the tears. Wh.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 7893434 | There were two dozen tightly rolled, never-used silk umbrellas in that closet; prizes she had won. Flossie collected them for display the way an athlete collects cups. Francie felt happy looking at all the umbrellas. Poor people have a great passion for huge quantities of things. | Betty Smith | ||
| 0903ea7 | The pipe came from Sissy's factory. The factory made a few rubber toys as a blind. It made its big profits from other rubber articles which were bought in whispers. | Betty Smith | ||
| 45ac78a | 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. | Betty Smith | ||
| d989923 | Flossie was always running after men and they were always running away from her. Francie's Aunt Sissy ran after men, too. But somehow they ran to meet her halfway. The difference was that Flossie Gaddis was starved about men and Sissy was healthily hungry about them. And what a difference that made. | Betty Smith | ||
| e757b63 | There were times though, especially towards the end of a long cold dark winter, when, no matter how hungry Francie was, nothing tasted good. That was big pickle time. | Betty Smith | ||
| 91cc233 | What must I do, Mother, what must I do to make a different world for her? How do I start?" "The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret." "I will read," promised Katie. "What is a good book?" | Betty Smith | ||
| 2195250 | The sad thing was in the knowing that all their nerve would get them nowhere in the world and that they were lost as all people in Brooklyn seem lost when the day is nearly over and even though the sun is still bright, it is thin and doesn't give you warmth when it shines on you. | Betty Smith | ||
| 94cd56f | Seems like I'm the most dissatisfied person in the whole world. Oh, I wish I was young again when everything seemed so wonderful! | Betty Smith | ||
| 09f7f7a | Man hatte meinen konnen, all die Unwillkommenen wurden sich zusammentun und gemeinsam gegen die Macht auftreten, die sie nicht aufkommen lassen wollte. Aber dem war nicht so. Sie hassten einander ebensosehr, wie die Lehrerin sie hasste. Sie imitierten die [...] Lehrerin [...]. Es gab in jeder Klasse einen Unglucklichen, den die Lehrerin zum Sundenbock stempelte. Dieses arme Kind wurde unausgesetzt getadelt und gequalt, an ihm reagierte sie .. | power | Betty Smith | |
| b1c0b96 | But they'd live. You betcha they'd live, thought Francie grimly. It takes a lot of doing to die. | Betty Smith | ||
| c798a0f | There had to be the dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background its flashing glory. | Betty Smith | ||
| 6b389a8 | She looked quickly at the little golden-brown pottery jug which stood at the end of the librarian's desk. It was a season indicator. In the fall it held a few sprigs of bittersweet and at Christmas time it held holly. She knew spring was coming, even if there was snow on the ground, when she saw pussy willow in the bowl. | Betty Smith | ||
| 5b93102 | They lived comfortably and it was a good life they had...happy and full of small adventures. And they were so young and loved each other so much. | Betty Smith | ||
| a9c5401 | Hell hath little fury like that of a critic who sees a writer make it big. | Piers Anthony | ||
| 4b5f979 | They had grown out of childhood in the last few days. Christmas as Christmas had passed unnoticed since their father had died on Christmas day. Neeley's thirteenth birthday had been lost somewhere in those last few days. They came to the brilliantly lighted facade of a big vaudeville house. Since they were reading children and read everything they came across, they stopped and automatically read the list of acts playing that week. Underneat.. | Betty Smith | ||
| 1e84174 | Growing up ruins everything | Betty Smith | ||
| ab96952 | When it first appeared, in 1943, it was called, by those critics who liked it, an honest book, and that is accurate as far as it goes. But it is more than that: It is deeply, indelibly true. Honesty is casting bright light on your own experience; truth is casting it on the experiences of all, which is why, six decades after it was published and became an instant bestseller, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn continues to be read by people from all co.. | Betty Smith |