Quotes from Louisa May Alcott

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.

She wasn't a particularly handsome person, but mothers are always lovely to their children, and the girls thought that the gray cloak and unfashionable bonnet covered the most splendid woman in the world.

The only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of age, rank, age, or color.

He never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him. He helped and comforted me, and showed me that I must try to practice all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example.

I never yield to injustice if I can help it, ...

Meg made many moral rules, and tried to keep them, but what mother was ever proof against the winning wiles, the ingenious evasions, or the tranquil audacity of the miniature men and women who so early show themselves accomplished Artful Dodgers?

I want to tell; but some things even you couldn't forgive; and if you let go of me, I'm afraid I can't keep afloat.' 'Mothers can forgive anything!

If Marmee shook her fist instead of kissing her hand to us, it would serve us right, for more ungrateful wretches than we are were never seen," cried Jo, taking a remorseful satisfaction in the snowy walk and bitter wind.

Amy was much offended that her overtures of peace had been repulsed, and began to wish she had not humbled herself, to feel more injured than ever, and to plume herself on her superior virtue in a way which was particularly exasperating.

You've had the scarlet fever, haven't you? Years ago, when Meg did. Why? Then I'll tell you. Oh, Jo, the baby's dead! What baby? Mrs. Hummel's. It died in my lap before she got home, cried Beth with a sob.

There was a good deal of laughing, and kissing, and explaining, in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, then all fell to work. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

Miss Kate, though twenty, was dressed with a simplicity which American girls would do well to imitate

While we wait we may all work, so that these hard days need not be wasted.

Make this home happy, so that you may be fit for homes of your own if they are offered you, and contented here if they are not.

It's bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boy's 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 home and knit, like a poky old woman!" And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.

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

Fearing to ask any more advice, she did her best alone, and discovered that something more than energy and good-will is necessary to make a cook.

Oh, when these hidden stores of ours Lie open to the Father's sight, May they be rich in golden hours, Deeds that show fairer for the light, Lives whose brave music long shall ring Like a spirit-stirring strain, Souls that shall gladly soar and sing In the long sunshine after rain.

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.

I beg your pardon for being so rude, but sometimes you forget to put down the curtain at the window where the flowers are. And when the lamps are lighted, it's like looking at a picture to see the fire, and you all around the table with your mother. Her face is right opposite, and it looks so sweet behind the flowers, I can't help watching it. I haven't got any mother, you know.

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

Jo announced that the coffee was ready, and every one settled themselves to a hearty meal; for youth is seldom dyspeptic, and exercise develops wholesome appetites.

half done, she left her establishment topsy-turvy

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 had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.