Louisa May Alcott, Little Women Quotes

Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.

Conceit spoils the finest genius.

...freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul.

I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.

I've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.

You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.

life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.

…marriage, they say, halves one's rights and doubles one's duties.

John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!

Because they are mean is no reason why I should be. I hate such things, and though I think I've a right to be hurt, I don't intend to show it. (Amy March)

The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.

Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.

...the love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward I could receive for my efforts to be the woman I would have them copy.

…because talent isn't genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.

…in silence learned the sweet solace which affection administers to sorrow.

I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them.

…on some occasions, women, like dreams, go by contraries.

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.

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.

Be worthy love, and love will come.

[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.

ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial.

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

...the uncomfortable appearance of a girl who was rapidly shooting up into a woman and didn't like it.

…possessed of that indescribable charm called grace.

I wish wearing flat-irons on our heads would keep us from growing up. But buds will be roses, and kittens, cats, - more's the pity!

I don't think secrets agree with me, I feel rumpled up in mind since you told me that…

Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret…

It does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants

As to the other three, if they had been perfection they would not have been real girls, and you could not have wept over their trials and laughed over their pleasures.

It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way

The more one gets the more one wants

Trifles show character

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

What shall you do all your vacation?’, asked Amy. "I shall lie abed and do nothing", replied Meg.

Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such and unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.

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

…nothing remained but loneliness and grief…

I like good strong words that mean something…

I wish I had no heart, it aches so…

It’s bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boys’ games and work and manners!

In her secret soul, however, she decided that politics were as bad as mathematics, and that the mission of politicians seemed to be calling each other names…

But, like all happiness, it did not last long…

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

…wisely mingled poetry and prose.

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

…feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them.