Louisa May Alcott Quotes

I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.

…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.

Don't try to make me grow up before my time…

It’s highly virtuous to say we’ll be good, but wecan’t do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strongpull, and a pull all together before some of us even get ourfeet set in the right way.

Trifles show character

Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I many not reach them but I can look up and see the beauty believe in them and try to follow where they lead.

Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.

I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country

Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God's sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason.

Mothers have need of sharp eyes and discreet tongueswhen they have girls to manage

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

...freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul.

Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can

…no person, no matter how vivid an imagination he may have, can invent anything half so droll as the freaks and fancies that originate in the lively brains of little people.

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

Some books are so familiar, reading them is like being home again.

He was neither rich nor great, young nor handsome, - in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing or brilliant; and yet he was as attractive as a genial fire, and people seemed to gather about him as naturally as about a warm hearth.

Debate is masculine conversation is feminine.

Love is the only thing we can carry with us when we go and it makes the end so easy.

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

I wish I had no heart, it aches so…

I like good strong words that mean something…

Boys don't gush, so I can stand it. The last time I let in a party of girls, one fell into my arms and said, "Darling, love me!" I wanted to shake her,' answered Mrs. Jo, wiping her pen with energy.

The emerging woman ... will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied...strength and beauty must go together.

…having learned that people cannot be moulded like clay…

…marriage, they say, halves one's rights and doubles one's duties.

Right Jo better be happy old maids than unhappy wives or unmaidenly girls running about to find husbands.

The small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.

Be worthy love, and love will come.

Young people think they never can change, but they do in the most wonderful manner, and very few die of broken hearts.

Polly tried to conquer the bad feeling; but it worried her, till she remembered something her mother once said to her: "When you feel out of sorts, try to make someone else happy, and you will soon be so yourself.

Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go and it makes the end so easy.

The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlid here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter.

It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.

…nothing remained but loneliness and grief…

Marmee: Oh, Jo. Jo, you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? You’re ready to go out and – and find a good use for your talent. Tho’ I don’t know what I shall do without my Jo. Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain

I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them.

I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end. (Jo March)

Then it was that Jo, living in the darkened room, with that suffering little sister always before her eyes and that pathetic voice sounding in her ears, learned to see the beauty and the sweetness of Beth's nature, to feel how deep and tender a place she filled in all hearts, and to acknowledge the worth of Beth's unselfish ambition to live for others, and make home happy by that exercise of those simple virtues which all may possess, and which all should love and value more than talent, wealth, or beauty.

You do me proud, Captain. But, dear, I want to say one thing and then I'm done; for you don't need much advice of mine after my good man has spoken. I read somewhere that every inch of rope in the British Navy has a strand of red in it, so wherever a bit of it is found it is known. That is the text of my little sermon to you. Virtue, which means honour, honesty, courage, and all that makes character, is the red thread that marks a good man wherever he is. Keep that always and everywhere, so that even if wrecked by misfortune, that sign shall still be found and recognized. Yours is a rough life, and your mates not all we could wish, but you can be a gentleman in the true sense of the word; and no matter what happens to your body, keep your soul clean, your heart true to those who love you, and do your duty to the end.

Many of the bravest never are known, and get no praise. [But]that does not lessen their beauty...

…a woman's always safe and comfortable when a fellow's down on his luck.

And mother-like, Mrs. Jo forgot the threatened chastisement in tender lamentations over the happy scapegrace…

Education is not confined to books, and the finest characters often graduate from no college, but make experience their master, and life their book. [Some care] only for the mental culture, and [are] in danger of over-studying, under the delusion . . . that learning must be had at all costs, forgetting that health and real wisdom are better.

Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such and unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.

It is a merciful provision my dears, for it takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world. You are costly creatures, boys, and it is well that mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters love their duty and do it so well, or you would perish off the face of the earth,' said Mrs. Jo solemnly…

leave him free, and the mere sense of liberty would content him, joined to the knowledge that his presence was dear to those whom he loved best.

A little kingdom I possess Where thoughts and feelings dwell And very hard the task I find Of governing it well.

You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it. Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off.

You can go through the world with your elbows out and your nose in the air, and call it independence, if you like. That's not my way.

But, like all happiness, it did not last long…

Color makes no difference; the peeps are gray, the seals are black, and the crabs yellow; but we don't care, and are all friends. It is very unkind to treat you so.

Prosperity suits some people, and they blossom best in a glow of sunshine; others need the shade, and are the sweeter for a touch of frost.

How little it takes to make a young girl happy! A pretty dress, sunshine, and somebody opposite, and they are blest.

Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants…

Young things like you don't need any ornaments but those you wear to-night: youth, health, intelligence, and modesty.

You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.

Men are always ready to die for us, but not to make our lives worth having. Cheap sentiment and bad logic.