“I'd rather take coffee than compliments just now.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys . Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.
Alcott's family suffered financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard, under which she wrote novels for young adults.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Hillside, later called the Wayside, in Concord, Massachusetts and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters. The novel was very well received and is still a popular children's novel today, filmed several times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She died in Boston on March 6, 1888.

“I'd rather take coffee than compliments just now.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Amy, in Ch. 44 : My Lord and Lady
Variant: I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.
Source: Little Women (1868)
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Variant: The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
“I like good strong words that mean something…”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
Source: The Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story
“It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.”
Source: Marjorie's Three Gifts
“… for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Marmee March to Jo, in Ch. 8 : Jo Meets Apollyon
Little Women (1868)
Context: You think your temper is the worst in the world, but mine used to be just like it. … I've been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it. … I've learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 36 : Beth's Secret
Context: Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations. 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. She did not rebuke Jo with saintly speeches, only loved her better for her passionate affection, 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. She could not say, "I'm glad to go," for life was very sweet for her. She could only sob out, "I try to be willing," while she held fast to Jo, as the first bitter wave of this great sorrow broke over them together.
“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
As quoted in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) by Elbert Hubbard, p. 62
“Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art.”
Louisa May Alcott A Long Fatal Love Chase
Source: A Long Fatal Love Chase
“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain”
Louisa May Alcott book Work: A Story of Experience
Variant: She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.
Source: Work: A Story of Experience
Louisa May Alcott A Long Fatal Love Chase
A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866)
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 41 : Learning To Forget
Context: 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.
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 24 : Gossip
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Variant: ... but, dear me, let us be elegant or die.
Source: Little Women
“Don't try to make me grow up before my time…”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 1 : Playing Pilgrims, First lines
Context: "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
"It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
"We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, "We haven't got Father, and shall not have him for a long time." She didn't say "perhaps never," but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.
“Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“A real gentleman is as polite to a little girl as to a woman.”
Louisa May Alcott book An Old-Fashioned Girl
Source: An Old-Fashioned Girl
“Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 40 : The Valley Of The Shadow
Source: Little Women Book Two Book: Good Wives
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Laurie to Jo, in Ch. 35 : Heartache
Source: Little Women (1868)
“Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.”
Source: Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott
“I could have been a great many things.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Variant: I should have been a great many things, Mr Mayor
Source: Little Women
“Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.”
Variant: Some stories are so familiar its like going home.
“life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it's good for me…”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
