Quotes from Louisa May Alcott

That's the interferingest chap I ever see

had no courage to think that at first, heavenly kind as was your welcome to me. But soon I began to hope, and then I said, 'I will haf her if I die for it,' and so I will! cried Mr. Bhaer, with a defiant nod, as if the walls of mist closing round them were barriers which he was to surmount or valiantly knock down. Jo thought that was splendid, and resolved to be worthy of her knight, though he did not come prancing on a charger in gorgeous array.

At four o'clock a lull took place, and baskets remained empty, while the apple pickers rested and compared rents and bruises. Then Jo and Meg, with a detachment of the bigger boys, set forth the supper on the grass, for an out-of-door tea was always the crowning joy of the day.

If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what

Don't laugh, but your nose is such a comfort to me, and Amy softly caressed the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction.

the smile vanished, and presently a tear lay shining on the window ledge. Beth whisked it off, and

Meg, as the eldest, was Samuel Pickwick, Jo, being of a literary turn, Augustus Snodgrass, Beth, because she was round and rosy, Tracy Tupman, and Amy, who was always trying to do what she couldn't, was Nathaniel Winkle.

You are a hero-worshipper, my dear; and if people don't come up to the mark you are so disappointed that you fail to see the fine reality which remains when the pretty romance ends.

Never had the sun risen so beautifully, and never had the world seemed so lovely as it did to the heavy eyes of Meg and Jo

Let the music stop, the lights die out, and the curtain fall for ever on the March family

It is not cowardly to flee temptation, and nobody whose opinion is worth having will ridicule any brave attempt to conquer one's self. Don't mind it, Charlie, but stand fast, and I am sure you will succeed.

I don't envy her much, in spite of her money, for after all rich people have about as many worries as poor ones, I think

How stupid you are child! He meant you of course. Did he? And Jo opened her eyes as if the thought had never occurred to her before.

Many men can be what the world calls great: very few men are what God calls good. This is the harder task to choose, yet the only success that satisfies, the only honor that outlives death.

There were lines upon his forehead, but Time seemed to have touched him gently, remembering how kind he was to others

When Mr. March lost his property in trying to help an unfortunate friend, the two oldest girls begged to be allowed to do something toward their own support, at least. Believing that they could not begin too early to cultivate energy, industry, and independence, their parents consented, and both fell to work with the hearty good-will which in spite of all obstacles, is sure to succeed at last.

for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.

Lounging and larking doesn't pay, observed Jo, shaking her head. I'm tired of it and mean to go to work at something right off.

There are plenty to love you so try to be satisfied with Father and Mother, Sisters and Brothers, friends and babies till the best lover of all comes to give you your reward.

They seemed to get clearer views of life and duty up there among the everlasting hills; the fresh winds blew away desponding doubts, delusive fancies, and moody mists; the warm spring sunshine brought out all sorts of aspiring ideas, tender hopes, and happy thoughts; the lake seemed to wash away the troubles of the past, and the grand old mountains to look benignly down upon them, saying, 'Little children, love one another.

Mark my words, Jo, you'll go next.

There's mischief going on, and I insist upon knowing what it is.

As Beth had hoped, the tide went out easily and in the dark hour before the dawn on the bosom where she had drawn her first breath, she quietly drew her last, with no farewell but one loving look, one little sigh.

Amy's lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward. Men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole.