Louisa May Alcott Quotes

Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.

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

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.

Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.

We can't any of us do all we would like, but we can do our best for every case that comes to us, and that helps amazingly.

People want to be amused, not preached at, you know. Morals don't sell nowadays.

Honesty is the best policy, in love as in law.

We're twins, and so we love each other more than other people.

It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.

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

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

The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.

Money is a needful and precious thing

Persuasive influences are better than any amount of moralizing.

Every house needs a grandmother in it.

It takes two flints to make a fire.

I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us.

Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.

But many of the bravest never are known, and get no praise. That does not lessen their beauty.

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

Don't shut yourself up in a band box because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take part in the world's work, for it all affects you and yours.

Madam de Stael pronounced architecture to be frozen music; so is statuary crystalized spirituality.

Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.

My definition (of a philosopher) is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down.

Men are often bad, but babies never are.

Dolls are safe companions.

Have your fun, my dear; but if you must earn your bread, try to make it sweet with cheerfulness, not bitter with the daily regret that it isn't cake.

Housekeeping ain't no joke.

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all.

Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art.

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

You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.

I don't worry about the storms, I am learning to sail my own ship.

It takes very little fire to make a great deal of smoke nowadays, and notoriety is not real glory.

Power is a dangerous thing. Be careful that you don't abuse it or let it make a tyrant of you.

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)

…proved that woman isn't a half but a whole human being, and can stand alone.

One's outlook is a part of his virtue.

What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?

The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.

John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!

I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.

A time will come when you will find that in gaining a brief joy you have lost your peace forever.

Love scenes, if genuine, are indescribable; for to those who have enacted them the most elaborate description seems tame, and to those who have not, the simplest picture seems overdone.

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.

…often between ourselves and those nearest and dearest to us there exists a reserve which it is very hard to overcome.

We don't choose our talents; but we needn't hide them in a napkin because they are not just what we want.

I could have been a great many things.

Good, old-fashioned ways keep hearts sweet, heads sane, hands busy.

Many argue; not many converse.