Louisa May Alcott Quotes - Page 11

...and Jo laid the rustling sheets together with a careful hand, as one might shut the covers of a lovely romance, which holds the reader fast till the end comes, and he finds himself alone in the work-a-day world again.

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)

Conceit spoils the finest genius?and the great charm of all power is modesty.

Beth could not reason upon or explain the faith that gave her courage and patience to give up life, and cheerfully wait for death. Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and Mother of us all, feeling sure that they, and they only, could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come.

I was thinking what a curious thing love is; only a sentiment, and yet it has power to make fools of men and slaves of women.

Dear me, if men and women would only trust, understand, and help one another as my children do, what a capital place the world would be!

strength and beauty must go hand in hand

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.

You say often you wish a library; here I gif you one; for between these two lids (he meant covers) is many books in one. Read him well, and he will help you much; for the study of character in this book will help you to read it in the world, and paint it with your pen.

For with eyes made clear by many tears, and a heart softened by the tenderest sorrow, she recognized the beauty of her sister's life—uneventful, unambitious, yet full of the genuine virtues which 'smell sweet, and blossom in the dust', the self-forgetfulness that makes the humblest on earth remembered soonest in heaven, the true success which is possible to all.

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.

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.

I asked for bread, and I got a stone in the shape of a pedestal.

Now and then genius carries all before it, but not often. We have to climb slowly, with many slips and falls.

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

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

Work is and always has been my salvation and I thank the Lord for it.

I'm tired of praise; and love is very sweet, when it is simple and sincere like this.

The female population exceeds the male, you know, especially in New England, which accounts for the high state of culture we are in, perhaps.

O vanity, mislead no more!

John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!

Dolls are safe companions.

I did fail, say what you will, for Jo wouldn't love me.

The fear of being an old maid made young girls rush into matrimony with a recklessness that astonishes.

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