Quotes by Louisa May Alcott

It's a great comfort to have an artistic sister.

Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honours!

Talent isn't genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing. I won't be a commonplace dauber, so I don't intend to try any more.

Salt is like good-humor, and nearly every thing is better for a pinch of it.

Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will come back buttered.

A house needs a grandma in it.

Aunt March is a regular samphire, is she not?' observed Amy, tasting her mixture critically. 'She means vampire, not seaweed, but it doesn't matter. It's too warm to be particular about one's parts of speech, ' murmured Jo.

That was all I wanted! whispered Polly, in a tone which caused him to feel that the race of angels was not entirely extinct.

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

Energy is more attractive than beauty in a man.

Cheerfulness can change misfortune into love and friends.

People cannot be molded like clay.

Fame is a very good thing to have in the house, but cash is more convenient.

Don't shut yourself up in a band box because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take part in the world's work, for it all affects you and yours.

Let us be elegant or die!

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.

Swept into the giddy vortex which keeps so many young people revolving aimlessly, till they go down or are cast upon the shore, wrecks of what they might have been.

For it is the small temptations which undermine integrity unless we watch and pray and never think them too trivial to be resisted.

The scar will remain, but it is better for a man to lose both arms than his soul; and these hard years, instead of being lost, may be made the most precious of your lives, if they teach you to rule yourselves.

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

Some stories are so familiar its like going home.

Fathers and mothers are too absorbed in business and housekeeping to study their children, and cherish that sweet and natural confidence which is a child's surest safeguard, and a parent's subtlest power.

The youngest, aged twelve, could not conceal her disappointment, and turned away, feeling as so many of us have felt when we discover that our idols are very extraordinary men and women.

I don't pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you'd imagine. I'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and, though I can't explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit.

I don't like favors; they oppress and make me fell like a slave. I'd rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.

Don't you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties with make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and for bear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?

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

Chance words spoken in kindness often help amazingly; and that's what old people are here for -- else their experience is of little use.

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

Money is the means and the ends of my mercenary existence.

A holiday isn't a holiday, without plenty of freedom and fun.

Books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.

What would you have done had I persisted in stealing the 'poor little girl'?'
'Gone overboard; I never yield to injustice if I can help it,' and Rosamond's resolute mouth and flashing eyes proved the truth of her words.

Don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it.

Remember that frost comes latest to those that bloom the highest.

I don't worry about the storms, I am learning to sail my own ship.

The violin -- that most human of all instruments.

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

I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it.

People want to be amused, not preached at, you know. Morals don't sell nowadays.

So she doesn't call desertion, poverty, and hard work troubles? She's a brave little girl, and I shall be proud to know her.

Madam de Stael pronounced architecture to be frozen music; so is statuary crystalized spirituality.

The young people were playing that still more absorbing game in which hearts are always trumps.

During the fifteen minutes that followed, the proud and sensitive girl suffered a shame and pain which she never forgot. To others it might seem a ludicrous or trivial affair, but to her it was a hard experience, for during the twelve years of her life she had been governed by love alone.

Mrs. Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gayety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds.

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

I could have been a great many things.

But many of the bravest never are known, and get no praise. That does not lessen their beauty.

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

My little girl, I would face a dozen storms far worse than this to keep your soul as stainless as snow; for it is the small temptations which undermine integrity, unless we watch and pray, and never think them too trivial to be resisted.

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

I shall keep my book on the table here, and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good, and help me through the day.

Up in the garret, where Jo's unquiet wanderings ended, stood four little wooden chests in a row, each marked with its owner's name, and each filled with relics of childhood and girlhood ended now for all.

Rome took all the vanity out of me; for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair.

You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.

Honesty is the best policy, in love as in law.

I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it's good for me.

But please hug and kiss me, everyone, and don't mind my dress, I want a great many crumples of this sort put into it today.

All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe puts his joys and sorrows into poems, I turn my adventures into bread and butter.

I'm a crotchety old thing, and always shall be, but I'm willing to own that you are right, only it's easier for me to risk my life for a person than to be pleasant to him when I don't feel like it. It's a great misfortune to have such strong likes and dislikes, isn't it?

Love and Loyalty If ever men and women are their simplest, sincerest selves, it is when suffering softens the one, and sympathy strengthens the other.

It's so dreadful to be poor!

I shall have to toil and moil all my days, with only little bits of fun now and then, and get old and ugly and sour, because I'm poor, and can't enjoy my life as other girls do. It's a shame!

Jo began to dance a jig,...Amy nearly fell out of the window in her surprise, and Meg exclaimed, with uplifted hands, 'Well I do believe the world is coming to an end!

Meg learned to love her husband better for his poverty, because it seem to have made a man of him, giving him the strength and courage to fight his own way, and taught him a tender patience with which to bear and comfort the natural longings and failures of those he loved.

We'll all grow up Meg, no pretending we won't.

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.

When I had the youth I had no money, now I have the money I have no time, and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life.

I will make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world.

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

A real gentleman is as polite to a little girl as to a woman.

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.

You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.

There should always be one old maid in a family.

I'm happy as I am, and love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.

A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.

I put in my list all the busy, useful independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband than love to many of us.

Souls and bodies should go on together.

I may be strong-minded, but no one can say I'm out of my sphere now, for woman's special mission is supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens.

She fell into the moody, miserable state of mind which often comes when strong wills have to yield to the inevitable.

Sympathy is a sweet thing.

Beth ceased to fear him from that moment, and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life, for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.

Our actions are in our own hands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, and think twice before you do anything.

Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault.

In the books I read the sinners are always more interesting than the saints, and in real life good people are dismally dull. I've no desire to be wicked, but I do want to be happy. A short life and a gay one for me and I'm willing to pay for my pleasure if it is necessary.

I'm tired of praise; and love is very sweet, when it is simple and sincere like this.

Some old people keep young at heart in spite of wrinkles and gray hairs, can sympathize with children's little cares and joys, make them feel at home, and can hide wise lessons under pleasant plays, giving and receiving friendship in the sweetest way.

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

For the wise old man was universally beloved, and ministered so beautifully to his flock that many of them thanked him all their lives for the help given to both hearts and souls.

He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many.

My definition (of a philosopher) is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down.

Strength and beauty must go hand in hand.

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.

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

It's very singular how hard it is to manage your mind,' said Demi, clasping his hands round his knees, and looking up at the sky as if for information upon his favorite topic.