Nothing seemed impossible in the beginning.

Meg's high-heeled slippers were dreadfully tight, and hurt her, though she would not own it; and Jo's nineteen hair-pins all seemed stuck straight into her head, which was not exactly comfortable; but, dear me, let us be elegant or die.

The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado.

. . . 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.

... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.

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

...and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself.