...and the most intense desire gave force to her passionate words as the girl glanced despairingly about the dreary room like a caged creature on the point of breaking loose.

Mac looked up with the oddest of all his odd expressions

I love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.

It is never too early to try and plant [good principles] in a child, and never too late to cultivate them in the most neglected person.

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

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.

…for no matter how lost and soiled and worn-out wandering sons may be, mothers can forgive and forget every thing as they fold them into their fostering arms. Happy the son whose faith in his mother remains unchanged, and who, through all his wanderings, has kept some filial token to repay her brave and tender love.