“Amy's lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward; men seldom do,—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: Little Women
“Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood...”
Source: Little Women
“Very likely some Mrs Grundy will observe, "I don't believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." I dare say you don't, Mrs. Grundy, but it's true nevertheless. Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings.”
Source: Good Wives
“No love or pity, pardon or excuse should soften the sharp pang of reparation for the guilty man.”
Source: A Long Fatal Love Chase
“I was thinking what a curious thing love is; only a sentiment, and yet it has power to make fools of men and slaves of women.”
Source: A Long Fatal Love Chase
“Energy is more attractive than beauty in a man.”
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…
“Now we are expected to be as wise as men who have had generations of all the help there is, and we scarcely anything.”
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)
“It takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world.”
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…
“Love is apt to make lunatics of even men and saints.”
“No woman should give her happiness into the keeping of a man without fixed principles.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“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!”
“[She was] kept there in the sort of embrace a man gives to the dearest creature the world holds for him.”
Source: Little Women Collection: Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and More
“...Meg learned to love her husband better for his poverty, because it seem to have made a man of him, giving him the strength and courage to fight his own way, and taught him a tender patience with which to bear and comfort the natural longings and failures of those he loved.”
Source: Little Women
“I love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.”
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
“... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”
Source: Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys
“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
“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
“Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.”
“Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“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.”
Source: Little Women
“It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.”
Source: Little Women
“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
“I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods.”
Source: Jo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to
“Men are always ready to die for us, but not to make our lives worth having. Cheap sentiment and bad logic.”
Source: Jo's Boys: Top Novelist Focus
“I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully.”
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)
“…men never forgive like women.”
Source: LITTLE WOMEN SERIES – Complete Collection: 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
“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)
“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…
“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.”
Source: An Old-Fashioned Girl: Top Novelist Focus
“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
“My definition (of a philosopher) is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down.”
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…
“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.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)
“Men are often bad, but babies never are.”
“For the wise old man was universally beloved, and ministered so beautifully to his flock that many of them thanked him all their lives for the help given to both hearts and souls.”
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…
