“If people really want to go, and really try all their lives, I think they will get in; for I don't believe there are any locks on that door, or any guards at the gate. I always imagine it is as it is in the picture, where the shining ones stretch out their hands to welcome poor Christian as he comes up from the river.”
Source: The Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated): Novels, Short Stories, Plays & Poems: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, The Abbot's Ghost…
“Books are always good company if you have the right sort.”
Source: All the 4 Little Women Books: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys
“Have your fun, my dear; but if you must earn your bread, try to make it sweet with cheerfulness, not bitter with the daily regret that it isn't cake.”
Source: The Portable Louisa May Alcott
“Love scenes, if genuine, are indescribable; for to those who have enacted them the most elaborate description seems tame, and to those who have not, the simplest picture seems overdone.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“In the books I read the sinners are always more interesting than the saints, and in real life good people are dismally dull. I've no desire to be wicked, but I do want to be happy. A short life and a gay one for me and I'm willing to pay for my pleasure if it is necessary.”
“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.”
Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
“. . . for 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.”
Source: Annotated Little Women with English Grammar Exercises: by Louisa May Alcott (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
“Dear me, if men and women would only trust, understand, and help one another 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.”
“I’m not like the rest of you; I never made any plans about what I’d do when I grew up; I never thought of being married, as you did. I couldn’t seem to imagine myself anything but stupid little Beth, trotting about at home, of no use anywhere but there. I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is leaving you all. I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.”
Source: Annotated Little Women with English Grammar Exercises: by Louisa May Alcott (Author), Robert Powell (Editor)
“Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God's sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason.”
Source: Little Women
“Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.”
Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
“Well, if I can't be happy, I can be useful, perhaps.”
Source: The Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated): Novels, Short Stories, Plays & Poems: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, The Abbot's Ghost…
“It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.”
Source: The Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated): Novels, Short Stories, Plays & Poems: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, The Abbot's Ghost…
“When Jo's conservative sister Meg says she must turn up her hair now that she is a "young lady," Jo shouts, "I'm not! and if turning up my hair makes me one, I'll wear it in two tails till I'm twenty.... I hate to think I've got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster! It's bad enough to be a girl anyway, when I like boys' games and work and manners! I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy; and it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman.”
“Money is a needful and precious thing, and when well used, a noble thing, but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.”
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.”
Source: Little Women Coloring Book
“If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”
Source: The Portable Louisa May Alcott
“She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty, and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, 'truth, reverence, and good will,' then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great.”
Source: Good Wives: Easyread Large Bold Edition
“Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?”
Source: The 'Little Women' Trilogy (Illustrated)
“Jo's face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her, and she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed it, but did not troubled herself to make inquiries, for she had learned that the best way to manage Jo was by the law of contraries, so she felt sure of being told everything if she did not ask.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“When I had the youth I had no money, now I have the money I have no time, and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“Love and Loyalty If ever men and women are their simplest, sincerest selves, it is when suffering softens the one, and sympathy strengthens the other.”
Source: Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories
“Dear me! how happy and good we'd be, if we had no worries!”
Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
“Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants.”
Source: Little Women Collection: Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and More
“If life is often so hard as this, I don't see how we ever shall get through it.”
Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
“…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.”
Source: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Ultimate Collection: 16 Novels & 150+ Short Stories, Plays and Poems (Illustrated): Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, Lulu's Library, The Abbot's Ghost, A Garland for Girls…
“Beth ceased to fear him from that moment, and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life, for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”
Source: Little Women (Illustrated Edition)
“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.”
Source: Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys & A Sequel - Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out (Children’s Classics Series – Illustrated Edition)
“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.”
Source: Little Women
“If you dear little girls would only learn what real beauty is, and not pinch and starve and bleach yourselves out so, you'd save an immense deal of time and money and pain. A happy soul in a healthy body makes the best sort of beauty for man or woman.”
Source: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Ultimate Collection: 16 Novels & 150+ Short Stories, Plays and Poems (Illustrated): Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys, A Modern Mephistopheles, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, Behind a Mask, Lulu's Library, The Abbot's Ghost, A Garland for Girls…
“You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.”
“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.”
Source: Greatest Christmas Novels in One Volume: Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Heidi, The Romance of a Christmas Card, The Little City of Hope, The Wonderful Life, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Peter Pan…
“Many wise and true sermons are preached us everyday by unconscious ministers in street, school, office, or home; even a fair table may become a pulpit, if it can offer the good and helpful words which are never out of season.”
Source: The Complete Little Women Series: Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys: The Beloved Classics of American Literature: The coming-of-age series based on the author’s own childhood experiences with her three sisters
“I'm perfectly miserable; but if you consider me presentable, I die happy.”
Source: Little Women
“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”
“If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all that you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind: Your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are the things I cherish so in you. I so wish I could give my girls a more just world. But I know you’ll make it a better place." -- Marmee, 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.”
Source: Little Women
“When I had youth I had no money; now I have the money I have no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life. I suppose it's the discipline I need; but it's rather hard to love the things I do, and see them go by because duty chains me to my galley. If I ever come into port with all sails set, that will be my reward perhaps.”
Source: Civil War Memoirs of Louisa May Alcott (Unabridged): Including Letters, Hospital Sketches & Biography of the Author – Autobiographical account of the author from the time she worked as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army during the American Civil War
