Louisa May Alcott citations

Page 3

“life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.”

“Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally…”

“I have nothing to give but my heart so full and these empty hands."

"They're not empty now.”

“If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now.”

“…tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished. Almost twenty-five and nothing to show for it.”

“Well, if I can't be happy, I can be useful, perhaps.”

“I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it's good for me…”

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

“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.”

“… 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.”

“Woman work a great many miracles.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“I hate ordinary people!”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“…we're twins, and so we love each other more than other people…”

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

“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.”

“He was the first, the only love her life, and in a nature like hers such passions take deep root and die-hard.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”