Louisa May Alcott Quotes

I wish I had a horse; then I could run for miles in this splendid air, and not lose my breath." Jo

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

... she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of their children.

It takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world.

I'm a bashful individual, though I can't get anyone to believe it ...

Need of that. I am not a young lady, and it's only a step. Take care of yourself, won't you?" "Yes, but you will come again, I hope?" "If you promise to come and see us after you are well." "I will." "Good night, Laurie!" "Good night, Jo, good night!" When all the afternoon's adventures had been told, the family felt inclined to go visiting in a body, for each found

When I seemed most like a child I was learning to be a woman.

What lady do you think prettiest?" Said Sallie.
"Margaret."
"Which do you like the best?"
"Jo, of course."
"What silly questions you ask!" and Jo gave a disdainful shrug as the rest laughed at Laurie's matter-of-fact tone

You've got me, anyhow. I'm not good for much, I know, but I'll stand by you, Jo, all the days of my life. Upon my word I will! and Laurie meant what he said.

There, I've done my best. If that wont do, I shall have to wait till I can do better.

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

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

Is that my boy?'
As sure as this is my girl!

He looked at her an instant, for the effect of the graceful girlish figure with pale, passionate face and dark eyes full of sorrow, pride and resolution was wonderfully enhanced by the gloom of the great room, and glimpses of a gathering storm in the red autumn sky.

CASTLES IN THE AIR Laurie

Trifles show character

Here's Meg married and a mamma, Amy flourishing away at Paris, and Beth in love. I'm the only one that has sense enough to keep out of mischief.

Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret ...

The girls flew about, trying to make things comfortable, each in her own way. Meg arranged the tea table, Jo brought wood and set chairs, dropping, over-turning, and clattering everything she touched. Beth trotted to and fro between parlor kitchen, quiet and busy, while Amy gave directions to everyone, as she sat with her hands folded.

A kiss for a blow is always best, though it's not very easy to give it sometimes.

By gentle words and silent acts of kindness, he had won her reverence and her trust, which now had deepened into woman's truest, purest love.

Nat played away and never minded anyone, while his eyes shone, his cheeks reddened, and his thin fingers flew, as he hugged the old fiddle and made it speak to all their hearts the language that he loved.

WHERE 'S Polly?" asked Fan one snowy afternoon, as she came into the dining-room where Tom was reposing on the sofa with his boots in the air, absorbed in one of those delightful books in which boys are cast away on desert islands, where every known fruit, vegetable and flower is in its prime all the year round; or, lost in boundless forests, where the young heroes have thrilling adventures, kill impossible beasts, and, when the author's invention gives out, suddenly find their way home, laden with tiger skins, tame buffaloes and other pleasing trophies of their prowess.

I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a commonplace dauber, so I don't intend to try any more.

... courage and devotion always stir generous hearts, and win admiration ...

Remember sarcasm is forbidden and sincerity the order of the day. You are country folks now, and it will do you good to try their simple, honest ways for a few days.

Elegance has a bad effect on my constitution.

... Jo valued the letter more than the money, because it was encouraging, and after years of effort it was so pleasant to find that she had learned to do something ...

I'm not Meg tonight, I'm a 'doll'.

The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet place, and curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures like a regular bookworm.

Uncle, I have discovered what girls are made for," said Rose, the day after the reconciliation of Archie and the Prince.
"Well, my dear, what is it?" asked Dr. Alec ...
"To take care of boys," answered Rose, quite beaming with satisfaction as she spoke. "Phebe laughed when I told her, and said she thought girls had better learn to take care of themselves first. But that's because she hasn't got seven boy-cousins as I have."
"She is right, nevertheless, Rosy, and so are you, for the two things go together, and in helping seven lads you are unconsciously doing much to improve one lass,

If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.

Nicely, thank you, Mr. Laurence. But I am not Miss March, I'm only Jo," returned the young lady.
"I'm not Mr. Laurence, I'm only Laurie."
"Laurie Laurence, what an odd name."
"My first name is Theodore, but I don't like it, for the fellows called me Dora, so I made them say Laurie instead."
"I hate my name, too, so sentimental! I wish every one would say Jo instead of Josephine. How did you make the boys stop calling you Dora?"
"I thrashed 'em."
"I can't thrash Aunt March, so I suppose I shall have to bear it." And Jo resigned herself with a sigh

Mother Atkinson thought that every one should have a trade, or something to make a living out of , for rich people may grow poor, you know, and poor people have to work ... so when I saw how happy and independent those young ladies were, I wanted to have a trade, and then it wouldn't matter about money, though I like to have it well enough.

Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.

Faber's drawing-pencils;

I'll try to be what Father loves to call me, a 'little woman,' and not be rough and wild but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.

We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
Full of the grateful peace
That follows her release;
For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.

You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can't explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women

Laurie, you're an angel! How shall I ever thank you?"
"Fly at me again. I rather liked it," said Laurie, looking
mischievous, a thing he had not done for a fortnight.

I love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.

It is necessary to do right; it is not necessary to be happy.

If she had seen his face when, safe in his own room, he looked at the picture of a severe and rigid young lady, with a good deal of hair, who appeared to be gazing darkly into futurity, it might have thrown some light upon the subject, especially when he turned off the gas, and kissed the picture in the dark.

Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.

Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?

Mothers can forgive anything!

You think then, that it is better to have a few duties and live a little for others, do you?

If she really had any doubt, the look in Dr. Alec's face banished it without a word, as he opened wide his arms and she ran into them, feeling that home was here.

(V)irtue, like sunshine, works its own sweet miracles

My only answer is, if my grave stood open on one side and you upon the other I'd go into my grave before I would take one step to meet you.

Now, if you make fun of my plan I'll give you bad coffee for a week, and then where are you, sir? cried Mrs. Jo, tweaking him by the ear just as if he was one of the boys.

Resolved to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.

I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods.

What shall you do all your vacation?', asked Amy. "I shall lie abed and do nothing", replied Meg.

Rivalry adds so much to the charm of one's conquests.

He danced like a grasshopper on fire,

I for one don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and minors any longer, for I am none of them.

Don't take it away! It's only a fancy, but a man must love something ...

A time will come when you will find that in gaining a brief joy you have lost your peace forever.

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

I think anxiety is very interesting, observed Amy, eating sugar pensively.

That looks feasible. What do you want for lunch? Cake, sandwiches, fruit, and coffee will be all that is necessary, I suppose?"
"Oh, dear, no! We must have cold tongue and chicken, French chocolate and ice cream, besides. The girls are used to such things, and I want my lunch to be proper and elegant, though I do work for my living.

... tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished. Almost twenty-five and nothing to show for it.

Back to him she would never go, but in her lonely life still lived the sweet memory of that happy time when she believed in him and he was all in all to her.

Presently, out from the wrappings came a teapot, which caused her to clasp her hands with delight, for it was made in the likeness of a plump little Chinaman ... Two pretty cups with covers, and a fine scarlet tray, completed the set, and made one long to have a "dish of tea," even in Chinese style, without cream or sugar.

For they were enjoying the happy hour that seldom comes but once in any life, the magical moment which bestows youth on the old, beauty on the plain, wealth on the poor, and gives human hearts a foretaste of heaven.

In the midst of her tears came the thought, "When people are in danger, they ask God to save them;" and, slipping down upon her knees, she said her prayer as she had never said it before, for when human help seems gone we turn to Him as naturally as lost children cry to their father, and feel sure that he will hear and answer them.

As they gathered about the table, Mrs. March said, with a particularly happy face, "I've got a treat for you after supper.

Never take advice!

When Jo's conservative sister Meg says she must turn up her hair now that she is a "young lady," Jo shouts, "I'm not! and if turning up my hair makes me one, I'll wear it in two tails till I'm twenty ... I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster! It's bad enough to be a girl anyway, when I like boys' games and work and manners! I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy; and it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman.

Cried Meg, and the rehearsal ended in a general burst of laughter.

She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.

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

An old maid, that's what I'm to be. A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps ...

Laurie felt just then that his heart was entirely broken and the world a howling wilderness.

I agree not to expect anything

So you see [the act of teaching] teaches me also, and is as good as a general review of what I've learned, in a pleasanter way than going over it alone.

Here, my man, just hold it this way, while I look into it a bit," he said one day to Fitz G., putting a wounded arm into the keeping of a sound one, and proceeding to poke about among bits of bone and visible muscles, in a red and black chasm made by some infernal machine of the shot or shell description. Poor Fitz held on like a grim Death, ashamed to show fear before a woman, till it grew more than he could bear in silence; and, after a few smothered groans,he looked at me imploringly, as if he said, "I wouldn't, ma'am, if I could help it," and fainted quietly away.

Dr. P. looked up, gave a compassionate sort of cluck, and poked away more busily than ever, with a nod at me and a brief - "Never mind; be so good as to hold this till I finish."

I obeyed, cherishing the while a strong desire to insinuate a few of his own disagreeable knives and scissors into him, and see how he liked it. A very disrespectful and ridiculous fancy of course; for he was doing all that could be done, and the arm prospered finely in his hands. But the human mind is prone to prejudice; and though a personable man, speaking French like a born "Parley voo," and whipping off legs like an animated guillotine, I must confess to a sense of relief when he was ordered elsewhere; and suspect that several of the men would have faced a rebel battery with less trepidation than they did Dr. P., when he came briskly in on his morning round.

smile upon him far, far from foemen's power. And Mohammed, thinking to look upon a dying slave, shall

Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, "You know the reason Mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army. We can't do much, but we can make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I don't," and Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.

A child her wayward pencil drew
On margins of her book;
Garlands of flower, dancing elves,
Bud, butterfly, and brook,
Lessons undone, and plum forgot,
Seeking with hand and heart
The teacher whom she learned to love
Before she knew t'was Art.

I should have been a great many things, Mr Mayor

He can give you one thing, Tilly, - the pleasure of doing good. That is one of the sweetest things in life; and the poor can enjoy it as well as the rich.

…the child's heart bled when it was broken.

I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!

Emil and Jack established rival claims to a certain thick patch, and while they were squabbling about, Stuffy quickly and quietly stripped the bushes and fled to the protection of Dan

Now and then genius carries all before it, but not often. We have to climb slowly, with many slips and falls.

I don't see why God made any night; day is so much pleasanter ...

Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.

Oh dear, life is pretty tough sometimes, isn't it?

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

Dear me! If only men and women would trust, understand and help as my children do, what a capital place `the world would be!

Virtue was its own reward.

And now, having endeavoured to suit everyone by many weddings, few deaths, and as much prosperity as the eternal fitness of things will permit, let the music stop, the lights die out, and the curtain fall for ever on the March family.

We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The duty we owe ourselves is greater than that we owe others.

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

But young as she was, Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally, so though she believed she knew the cause of Beth's new pain, she only said, in her tenderest tone, Does anything trouble you, deary?

To marry without love betrays as surely as to love without marriage ...