Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding Quotes

“Good things come, but they're never perfect; are they? You have to twist them into something perfect.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding

“The next morning, of course, Betsy made a list. Lists were always her comfort. For years she had made lists of books she must read, good habits she must acquire, things she must do to make herself prettier—like brushing her hair a hundred strokes at night, and manicuring her fingernails, and doing calisthenics before an open window in the morning. (That one hadn’t lasted long.)
It was fun making this list, sitting in bed with her breakfast tray on her lap…hot chocolate, crisp hard rolls, and a pat of butter. Hanni had brought it to her after closing the windows and pushing back the velvet draperies. Betsy felt like a heroine in one of her own stories; their maids always awakened them that way.

1. Learn the darn money.
2. Study German. (You’ve forgotten all you knew.)
3. Buy a map and learn the city—from end to end, as you told Papa you would.
4. Read the history of Bavaria. You must have it for background.
5. Go to the opera. (You didn’t stay in Madeira because Munich is such a center for music and art???)
6. Go to the art galleries. (Same reason.)
7. Write!

Full of enthusiasm, she planned a schedule. First, each morning, she would have her bath, and then write until noon. After the midday dinner she would go out and learn the city. She would go to the galleries, museums, and churches. She would have coffee out—for atmosphere.
“Then I’ll come home and study German and read Bavarian history. And after supper…” she tried not to remember the look of that dining room…“I’ll write my diary-letter, except when I go to the opera or concerts.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding

“They always ate and made tea on the alcohol lamp before going to bed. This was quite in the German tradition, Tilda said. Germans in their homes ate six meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast, dinner, afternoon coffee, supper and in the evening tea or beer with sandwiches and kuchen. Betsy, in the cherry-red bathrobe, and Tilda in a blue one, feasted merrily.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding

“I was sunk. I couldn't get any news, and Hawthorne kept chewing me up. So, trying to make up for the stories I was missing, I started spending hours in the document room. The other boys never go in there. It's just a morgue for papers."
"What kind of papers?"
"Oh, papers filed by citizens having court troubles - complaints, countercomplaints, bills of particulars, suits for damages. You have to dig to find one with a story in it.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding

“You’ll love it, Betsy. Each room illustrates a period. They run from the Stone Age to the death of King Ludwig the Second. Let’s go through them in order!”
“Oh, you Germans!” Betsy teased. “Such thoroughness! You know, don’t you, that there are over a hundred rooms?”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and the Great World / Betsy's Wedding