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

Mrs. Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gayety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds.

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

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

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

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

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.