Best Of Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Painting above: Woman with Bouquet (ca.1940) by Laura Wheeler Waring

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 […] 

only by having these things in my mind can I life beyond what I have to live for.

p. 83

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 make them to stretch.

p.83-84