The Joy of Life Quotes

“But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“Our citizens must act as Americans; not as Americans with a prefix and qualifications; not as Irish-Americans, German-Americans, native Americans—but as Americans pure and simple.28”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer…There are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular time. But there are tens of thousands of interesting books, and some of them are sealed to some men and some are sealed to others; and some stir the soul at some given point of a man’s life and yet convey no message at other times. The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“As yet no nation can hold its place in the world, or can do any work really worth doing, unless it stands ready to guard its rights with an armed hand.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“Our citizens must act as Americans; not as Americans with a prefix and qualifications; not as Irish-Americans, German-Americans, native Americans—but as Americans pure and simple.28 We must have only one language here, he said, “the language of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, of Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech and Second Inaugural, and of Washington’s farewell address.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“He was the one who gave Maxwell House Coffee their slogan: “Good to the last drop!”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life

“You were an American now and don’t let him hear you call yourself an Irish-American or a German-American.”
― Mary Beth Smith, The Joy of Life