Louisa May Alcott Quotes

The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

I don't like favors; they oppress and make me fell like a slave. I'd rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.

…she'll go and fall in love, and there's an end of peace and fun, and cozy times together.

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.

I don't pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you'd imagine. I'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and, though I can't explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit.

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

When I had the youth I had no money, now I have the money I have no time, and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life.

"Stay" is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.

Let us be elegant or die! --Amy

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

Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.

If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all that you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind: Your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are the things I cherish so in you. I so wish I could give my girls a more just world. But I know you’ll make it a better place." -- Marmee, Little Women

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

Salt is like good-humor, and nearly every thing is better for a pinch of it.

I could have been a great many things.

books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.

Now we are expected to be as wise as men who have had generations of all the help there is, and we scarcely anything.

It's lovely to see people so happy.

Fathers and mothers are too absorbed in business and housekeeping to study their children, and cherish that sweet and natural confidence which is a child's surest safeguard, and a parent's subtlest power.

Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.

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

…misfortune was much more interesting to her than good luck.

Elegance has a bad effect on my constitution.

I'd rather take coffee than compliments just now.

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

…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.

Some stories are so familiar its like going home.

where I wholly love I wholly trust.

hither,hither, from thy home,airy sprite, i bid thee come! born of roses, fed on dew, charms and potions canst thow brew? bring me here, with elfin speed,the fragment philter witch i need; make it sweet and swift and stong, spirite amserw now my song hither i come, from my airy home, afar silver moon. take magic spell, and use it well. or its powers will vanish soon!

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.

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.

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.

But the spirit of Eve is strong in all her daughters.

I ask not for any crown But that which all may win; Nor try to conquer any world Except the one within.

Gentlemen, be courteous to the old maids, no matter how poor and plain and prim, for the only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of rank, age, or color.

. . . 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.

Jo's face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her, and she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed it, but did not troubled herself to make inquiries, for she had learned that the best way to manage Jo was by the law of contraries, so she felt sure of being told everything if she did not ask.

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.

I think we are all hopelessly flawed.

Men are often bad, but babies never are.

Jo began to dance a jig,...Amy nearly fell out of the window in her surprise, and Meg exclaimed, with uplifted hands, 'Well I do believe the world is coming to an end!

Jo's breath gave out here, and wrapping her head in the paper, she bedewed her little story with a few natural tears, for to be independent and earn the praise of those she loved were the dearest wishes of her heart, and this seemed to be the first step toward that happy end.

Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will come back buttered.

No woman should give her happiness into the keeping of a man without fixed principles.

I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.

...and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander, where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.

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

Conceit spoils the finest genius.