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Louisa May Alcott Quotes
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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.

✵ 29. November 1832 – 6. March 1888  •  Other names Լուիզա Մեյ Օլքոթ
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Louisa May Alcott: 174 quotes77 likes

Louisa May Alcott Quotes

“Jo's eyes sparkled, for it's always pleasant to be believed in; and a friend's praise is always sweeter than a dozen newspaper puffs.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“… 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.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Woman work a great many miracles.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Take some books and read; that’s an immense help; and books are always good company if you have the right sort.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“The small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Men

Source: Little Men

“I hate ordinary people!”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it. Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

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

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

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

Louisa May Alcott

“…the violin — that most human of all instruments…”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

“It takes so little to make a child happy, that it is a pity in a world full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Men

Source: Little Men

“We'll all grow up Meg, no pretending we won't.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Mothers can forgive anything! Tell me all, and be sure that I will never let you go, though the whole world should turn from you.”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

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

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all some day.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Variant: I want to do something splendid... something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday.
Source: Little Women

“Young men often laugh at the sensible girls whom they secretly respect, and affect to admire the silly ones whom they secretly despise, because earnestness, intelligence, and womanly dignity are not the fashion.”

Louisa May Alcott book An Old-Fashioned Girl

Source: An Old-Fashioned Girl

“He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Men are always ready to die for us, but not to make our lives worth having. Cheap sentiment and bad logic.”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

“Love covers a multitude of sins…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“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.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“…I can't help seeing that you are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“… for a girl with eyes like hers has a will and is not ruled by anyone but a lover.”

Louisa May Alcott A Long Fatal Love Chase

Source: A Long Fatal Love Chase

“People don't have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world.”

Louisa May Alcott

“It takes two flints to make a fire.”

Louisa May Alcott

“To me, love isn't all. I must look up, not down, trust and honor with my whole heart, and find strenght and integrity to lean on”

Louisa May Alcott book Rose in Bloom

Source: Rose in Bloom

“When we make little sacrifices we like to have them appreciated, at least…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“…Jo loved a few persons very dearly and dreaded to have their affection lost or lessened in any way.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

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

Louisa May Alcott

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

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“politics were as bad as mathematics, and that the mission of politicians seemed to be calling each other names”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“But, like all happiness, it did not last long…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Dear me! how happy and good we'd be, if we had no worries!”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 22 : Artistic Attempts

“… freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“…she was one of those happily created beings who please without effort, make friends everywhere, and take life so gracefully and easily that less fortunate souls are tempted to believe that such are born under a lucky star.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queen's on thrones, without self-respect and peace.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“I shall keep my book on the table here, and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good, and help me through the day.”

Louisa May Alcott

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

Louisa May Alcott A Long Fatal Love Chase

Source: A Long Fatal Love Chase