Louisa May Alcott citations

Page 5

“Persuasive influences are better than any amount of moralizing.”

“Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her…”

“Don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it.”

“If life is often so hard as this, I don't see how we ever shall get through it…”

“… 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.”

“Strong convictions precede great actions.”

“We don't choose our talents; but we needn't hide them in a napkin because they are not just what we want.”

“I'm afraid I couldn't like him without a spice of human naughtiness.”

“Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants…”

“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.”

“We'll all grow up someday, Meg, we might as well know what we want.
~Amy March~”

“Mine first --mine last-- mine even in the grave!”

“Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.”

“The scar will remain, but it is better for a man to lose both arms than his soul; and these hard years, instead of being lost, may be made the most precious of your lives, if they teach you to rule yourselves.”

“I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!”

“[She was] kept there in the sort of embrace a man gives to the dearest creature the world holds for him.”

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

“Our actions are in our own hands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, and think twice before you do anything.”

“Dear me! If only men and women would trust, understand and help as my children do, what a capital place `the world would be!”

“My only answer is, if my grave stood open on one side and you upon the other I'd go into my grave before I would take one step to meet you.”

“But, Polly, a principle that can't bear being laughed at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, isn't worthy of the name.”

“John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!”

“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.”

“Where's the use of looking nice, when no one sees me but those cross midgets, and no one cares whether I'm pretty or not?”

“Go out more, keep cheerful as well as busy, for you are the sunshine-maker of the family, and if you get dismal there is no fair weather.”

“…she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of their children.”

“For an hour Rosamond paced up and down the deck reveling in the breezy motion of the boat, the delicious sense of freedom which possessed her, the atmosphere of romance which surrounded her. Tempest lounged beside her, watching her beautiful face, listening to her happy voice, and enjoying her innocent companionship with the relish of a man eager for novelty and skillful in the art of playing on that delicate instrument, a woman's heart.”

“The sin is yours, but the shame and sorrow are mine, the past I cannot retrieve, the future is still unspoiled and I will not embitter it by any willful sin. Before I was innocently guilty, now I should be doubly guilty if I went back to the 'gay free life I love.' Atone for the wrong you have done me by ceasing to tempt and trouble me. I will not yield, though you hunt me to death.”

“I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.”