“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.”
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
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Louisa May Alcott 174
American novelist 1832–1888Related quotes

Interview for Vogue magazine (December 2008)

Responding to a press conference question as to whether he was a "card-carrying" member of the Black Muslims, as quoted in The New York Times (27 February 1964) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4091EF7355D17738DDDAE0A94DA405B848AF1D3; also in Sports Illustrated (9 March 1964).
Context: I believe in Allah and in peace. I don't try to move into white neighborhoods. I don't want to marry a white woman. I was baptized when I was twelve, but I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not a Christian anymore. I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be... I'm free to be what I want.

Attributed as a quote in Charles W. Hudlin, "Morality and the Military Profession: Problems and Solutions", Military Ethics (National Defense University Press, 1987) http://books.google.com/books?id=B9EvXhH1ZVAC&pg=PA83; but Hudlin cites the biographical dramatization Patton (1970 film) which does not purport to use Patton's actual words.
Misattributed

McKenna interview (1992)