L S May Quotes

The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture, the sharpest reproof.

I asked for bread, and I got a stone in the shape of a pedestal.

The fear of being an old maid made young girls rush into matrimony with a recklessness that astonishes.

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

Oh, Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.

...and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander, where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.

Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety; it shows itself in acts rather than words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.

I'm perfectly miserable; but if you consider me presentable, I die happy.

Cheerfulness can change misfortune into love and friends.

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.

Nothing remained but loneliness and grief.

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

The dirt is picturesque, so I don't mind.

Jo's eyes sparkled, for it's always pleasant to be believed in; and a friend's praise is always sweeter than a dozen newspaper puffs.

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

…it is so much better to work for others than for one's self alone.

…I can't help seeing that you are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart.

Youth, health and freedom were meant to be enjoyed and I want to try every pleasure before I am too old to enjoy them.

I have nothing to give but my heart so full and these empty hands." "They're not empty now.

At twenty-five, girls begin to talk about being old maids, but secretly resolve that they never will. At thirty, they say nothing about it, but quietly accept the fact.

[She was] kept there in the sort of embrace a man gives to the dearest creature the world holds for him.

Is that all? The mountain in labor has brought forth a mouse.

For to be desperate is to discover strength. / We die of comfort and by conflict live.

Absence becomes the greatest Presence.

In the country of pain we are each alone.

instant intimacy was too often followed by disillusion.

And I refuse to feel guilty about not letter-writing either. There are times when one can, times when one can't. In the times when an enormous amount of living is going on, one can't.

Women's work is always toward wholeness.

... love is healing, even rootless love.

Human relations just are not fixed in their orbits like the planets -- they're more like galaxies, changing all the time, exploding into light for years, then dying away.

life is always bringing unexpected gifts.

True power is given to the vulnerable.

if you don't believe in yourself, you'll have some difficulty in making other people believe in you.

I have an idea that all sensible people will ultimately be damned.

The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one's own convictions - not obstinately or defiantly

The danger always exists that our technology will serve as a buffer between us and nature, a block between us and the deeper dimensions of our own experience.

All our feelings, like the artist's paints and brush, are ways of communicating and sharing something meaningful from us to the world.

This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human.

Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problem with perspective.

A person can meet anxiety to the extent that his values are stronger than the threat.

No one can separate themselves from one's social group and remain healthy, because the very structure of personality is dependent on the community.

By whatever name one calls it, genuine creativity is characterized by an intensity of awareness, a heightened consciousness.

By the creative act, we are able to reach beyond our own death.

Every authentic artist is engaged in this creating of the conscience of the race, even though he or she may be unaware of the fact.

As I've said previously as home secretary, dealing with immigration isn't just a single issue and a single measure and a single step that you take. You've got to keep working at that over time.

Dear me! how happy and good we'd be, if we had no worries!

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.

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

Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.

[Jo to her mother] I knew there was mischief brewing. I felt it and now it's worse than I imagined. I just wish I could marry Meg myself, and keep her safe in the family.