Betty Smith
Betty Smith
Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner, was an American author...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 December 1896
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
beautiful jesus believe
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 Mary. I'm a bad Catholic because I miss mass once in a while and I grumble when, at confession, I get a heavy penance for something I couldn't help doing. But good or bad, I am a Catholic and I'll never be anything else. Of course, I didn't ask to be born Catholic, no more than I asked to be born American. But I'm glad it turned out that I'm both these things.
believe giving dont-believe
I can never give a 'yes' or a 'no.' I don't believe everything in life can be settled by a monosyllable.
children believe imagination
Because 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 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.
children disappointment believe
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. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.
american-novelist filled last though time
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.
donations drop personal since slow
(Donations) slow down during the summer. I've only been here since the first of the year, but it has slowed down. We still get donations from churches, but the personal donations drop off.
beans green pork since stuff twice
We've used a lot of stuff since the Can-Care-A-Van. We go through pork and beans and green beans and things like that so fast. I've had to replenish those twice already.
writing thinking should-have
In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't get mixed up. It was the best advice Francie every got.
self too-much trouble
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.
understanding needs feels
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.
imagination
I'll not punish you for having an imagination.
growing-up tongue sticks
She told Papa about it. He made her stick out her tongue and he felt her wrist. He shook his head sadly and said, "You have a bad case, a very bad case." "Of what?" "Growing up.
pain simple differences
It was so simple that a flash of astonishment that felt like pain shot through her head. Education! That was it! It was education that made the difference! Education would pull them ut of the grame and dirt.
school other-worlds unattainable
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.