Quotes from Louisa May Alcott

It isn't fair that I should have the hardest work, and never any amusement. Men are very selfish, even the best of them.

My dear, don't let the sun go down upon your anger. Forgive each other, help each other, and begin again tomorrow.

It's my dreadful temper! I try to cure it, I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. Oh, mother, what shall I do? What shall I do?" "Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault.

Being a domestic man, John decidedly missed the wifely attentions he had been accustomed to receive, but as he adored his babies, he cheerfully relinquished his comfort for a time, supposing with masculine ignorance that peace would soon be restored.

Yours, Mother? Why, you are never angry!" "I've been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo, but I have learned not to show it, and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.

Right, Jo; better be happy old maids than unhappy wives, or unmaidenly girls, running about to find husbands," said Mrs. March decidedly.

This suited the young lady better than twilight confidences, tender pressures of the hand, and eloquent glances of the eye; for with Jo, brain developed earlier than heart, and she preferred imaginary heroes to real ones, because, when tired of them, the former could be shut up in the tin kitchen till called for, and the latter were less manageable.

I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good. To be admired, loved, and respected. To have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little are and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send. To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience.

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. When

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

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 be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life becomes a beautiful success, in spite of poverty.

Being still too young to go often to the theater, and not rich enough to afford any great outlay for private performances, the girls put their wits to work, and necessity being the mother of invention, made whatever they needed.

I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean o astonish you all some day.

Finish it if you choose only remember, my girl, that one may read at forty what is unsafe at twenty, and that we never can be too careful what food we give that precious yet perilous thing called imagination.

Poor Jo tried desperately to be good, but her bosom enemy was always ready to flame up and defeat her, and it took years of patient effort to subdue it.

People don't have fortunes left for them in that style nowadays, men have to work and women marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world.

The good and dear people always do die.

There are a good many hard times in this life of ours, but we can always bear them if we ask help n the right way.

I'm not ambitious for a splendid fortune, a fashionable position, or a great name for my girls. If rank and money come with love and virtue, also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune, but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be held in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.

The best of us have a spice of perversity in us, especially when we are young and in love.

The girls gave their hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's, and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses life and outlives death.

Wealth is certainly a most desirable thing, but poverty has its sunny side, and one of the sweet uses of adversity is the genuine satisfaction which comes from heart work of head or hand, and to the inspiration of necessity, we own half the wise, beautiful, and useful blessings of the world. Jo enjoyed a taste of this satisfaction, and ceased to envy richer girls, taking great comfort in the knowledge that she could supply her own wants, and need ask no one for a penny.

But young as she was, Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally…

That's loving our neighbor better than ourselves, and I like it.