Top 100 Louisa May Quotes
#1. Insist on yourself: never imitate. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.' ========== Rose in Bloom A Sequel to 'Eight Cousins' (Alcott, Louisa May)
Anonymous
#2. There was a good deal of laughing, and kissing, and explaining, in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, then all fell to work.
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
#3. Marvelously entertaining, Gabrielle Donnellys The Little Women Letters evokes the spirit of Louisa May Alcotts Little Women with warmth and affection. I thoroughly enjoyed every word of this wonderful book.
Jennifer Chiaverini
#4. It wasn't until I was an adult reader that I began to fathom the influence of fairy tales on writers I was in love with over the years, from Louisa May Alcott to Bernard Malamud to John Cheever to Anne Frank to Joy Williams.
Kate Bernheimer
#5. Louisa May Alcott is right. An extraordinary girl can't have an ordinary life. Don't judge yourself. Love yourself.
Caroline Kepnes
#6. The structure of 'March' was laid down for me before the first line was written, because my character has to exist within Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' plotline.
Geraldine Brooks
#7. You'll be amazed how much you have in common with Edith Wharton (who struggled to feel worthy of success), Louisa May Alcott (who badly needed money), Madaleine L'Engle (who could have papered an entire house with her rejection letters) and other writers...
Nava Atlas
#8. ... she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of their children.
Louisa May Alcott
#10. I don't see why God made any night; day is so much pleasanter ...
Louisa May Alcott
#11. ... I wanted to show that the mother was the heroine as soon as possible. I'm tired of love-sick girls and runaway wives. We'll prove that there's romance in old women also.
Louisa May Alcott
#12. I don't believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burned hair, old gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them.
Louisa May Alcott
#13. So she enjoyed herself heartily, and found, what isn't always the case, that her granted wish was all she had hoped.
Louisa May Alcott
#14. She would make a man of me. She puts strength and courage into me as no one else can. She is unlike any girl I ever saw; there's no sentimentality about her; she is wise, and kind, and sweet. She says what she means, looks you straight in the eye, and is as true as steel.
Louisa May Alcott
#15. Dan clung to her in speechless gratitude, feeling the blessedness of mother love, - that divine gift which comforts, purifies, and strengthens all who seek it.
Louisa May Alcott
#16. Men are always ready to die for us, but not to make our lives worth having. Cheap sentiment and bad logic.
Louisa May Alcott
#17. The story of his downfall is soon told; for it came, as so often happens, just when he felt unusually full of high hopes, good resolutions, and dreams of a better life.
Louisa May Alcott
#18. ... I can't help seeing that you are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart.
Louisa May Alcott
#19. Prosperity suits some people, and they blossom best in a glow of sunshine; others need the shade, and are the sweeter for a touch of frost.
Louisa May Alcott
#21. ... Jo valued the letter more than the money, because it was encouraging, and after years of effort it was so pleasant to find that she had learned to do something ...
Louisa May Alcott
#22. ... in silence learned the sweet solace which affection administers to sorrow.
Louisa May Alcott
#23. ... she never had what she wanted till she had given up hoping for,' said Mrs. Meg.
Louisa May Alcott
#24. Such hours are beautiful to live, but very hard to describe ...
Louisa May Alcott
#25. We don't choose our talents; but we needn't hide them in a napkin because they are not just what we want.
Louisa May Alcott
#27. I'm afraid I couldn't like him without a spice of human naughtiness.
Louisa May Alcott
#28. ... courage and devotion always stir generous hearts, and win admiration ...
Louisa May Alcott
#30. To the great delight of two ducks, four cats, five hens and half a dozen Irish children; for they were out of the city for now.
Louisa May Alcott
#31. I thought of all the summer evenings I'd spent sitting in the chairs under the trees beside the trailer, reading books that helped me escape Creek View, at least for a little while. Magical kingdoms, Russian love triangles, and the March sisters couldn't have been further away from the trailer park.
Heather Demetrios
#32. Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants ...
Louisa May Alcott
#33. ... because talent isn't genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.
Louisa May Alcott
#34. ... for it is a very solemn thing to be arrested in the midst of busy life by the possibility of the great change.
Louisa May Alcott
#35. ... misfortune was much more interesting to her than good luck.
Louisa May Alcott
#36. I'm tired of praise; and love is very sweet, when it is simple and sincere like this.
Louisa May Alcott
#37. ... trying to extinguish the brilliant hopes that blazed up a word of encouragement.
Louisa May Alcott
#38. ... I'm always ready to talk, shouldn't be a woman if I were not,' laughed Mrs. Jo ...
Louisa May Alcott
#40. That was all I wanted! whispered Polly, in a tone which caused him to feel that the race of angels was not entirely extinct.
Louisa May Alcott
#41. And mother-like, Mrs. Jo forgot the threatened chastisement in tender lamentations over the happy scapegrace ...
Louisa May Alcott
#42. ... she'll go and fall in love, and there's an end of peace and fun, and cozy times together.
Louisa May Alcott
#43. Love should not make us blind to faults, nor familiarity make us too ready to blame the shortcomings we see.
Louisa May Alcott
#44. ... she was one of those happily created beings who please without effort, make friends everywhere, and take life so gracefully and easily that less fortunate souls are tempted to believe that such are born under a lucky star.
Louisa May Alcott
#45. If life is often so hard as this, I don't see how we ever shall get through it ...
Louisa May Alcott
#46. ... Jo loved a few persons very dearly and dreaded to have their affection lost or lessened in any way.
Louisa May Alcott
#47. Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.
Louisa May Alcott
#48. Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow ...
Louisa May Alcott
#49. ... having learned that people cannot be moulded like clay ...
Louisa May Alcott
#51. 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.
Louisa May Alcott
#52. ... what splendid dreams young people build upon a word, and how bitter is the pain when the bright bubbles burst.
Louisa May Alcott
#53. ... a woman's always safe and comfortable when a fellow's down on his luck.
Louisa May Alcott
#54. ... we're twins, and so we love each other more than other people ...
Louisa May Alcott
#56. Tired of my own company, I suppose, now I've seen so much better.
Louisa May Alcott
#57. The emerging woman ... will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied ... strength and beauty must go together.
Louisa May Alcott
#58. Young people think they never can change, but they do in the most wonderful manner, and very few die of broken hearts.
Louisa May Alcott
#59. Oh, that is the surprise. It's so lovely, I pity you because you don't know it ...
Louisa May Alcott
#60. ... feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them.
Louisa May Alcott
#61. It's very singular how hard it is to manage your mind,' said Demi, clasping his hands round his knees, and looking up at the sky as if for information upon his favorite topic.
Louisa May Alcott
#62. ... if men and women would only trust, understand, and help one another as my children do, what a capital place the world would be!' and Mrs. Jo's eyes grew absent, as if she was looking at a new and charming state of society in which people lived as happily and innocently as her flock at Plumfield.
Louisa May Alcott
#63. ... he stood behind her, tall and pale, like the ghost of his former self ...
Louisa May Alcott
#64. ... no person, no matter how vivid an imagination he may have, can invent anything half so droll as the freaks and fancies that originate in the lively brains of little people.
Louisa May Alcott
#67. ... the little girls wore a grave, troubled expression, as if sorrow was a new experience to them.
Louisa May Alcott
#68. If all literary women had such thoughtful angels for husbands, they would live longer and write more. Perhaps that wouldn't be such a blessing to the world though, as most of us write too much now,' said Mrs. Jo ...
Louisa May Alcott
#69. Perhaps it would have been better if he had killed me; my life is spoilt.
Louisa May Alcott
#70. I think this power of living in our children is one of the sweetest things in the world ...
Louisa May Alcott
#71. ... that's what old people are here for, - else their experience is of little use.
Louisa May Alcott
#72. ... 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.
Louisa May Alcott
#74. I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully ...
Louisa May Alcott
#76. Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret ...
Louisa May Alcott
#77. Well, I'm sure I hope your health may be good, Louisa; for if your head begins to split as soon as you are married, which was the case with mine, I cannot consider that you are to be envied, though I have no doubt you think you are, as all girls do.
Charles Dickens
#78. Young people seldom turn out as one predicts, so it is of little use to expect anything,' said Mrs. Meg with a sigh. 'If our children are good and useful men and women, we should be satisfied; yet it's very natural to wish them to be brilliant and successful.
Louisa May Alcott
#79. I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them.
Louisa May Alcott
#80. Don't take it away! It's only a fancy, but a man must love something ...
Louisa May Alcott
#82. ... 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.
Louisa May Alcott
#83. 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 ...
Louisa May Alcott
#85. Nd I shall think her very mean indeed if she does not give me some of her gloves, for she has many of them, I've seen them myself ... and as you can see, I took the hint ... but not much love went into THAT package did it, my dear?
Louisa May Alcott
#88. The youngest, aged twelve, could not conceal her disappointment, and turned away, feeling as so many of us have felt when we discover that our idols are very extraordinary men and women.
Louisa May Alcott
#90. ... often between ourselves and those nearest and dearest to us there exists a reserve which it is very hard to overcome.
Louisa May Alcott
#92. ... proved that woman isn't a half but a whole human being, and can stand alone.
Louisa May Alcott
#93. Mrs. Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gayety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds.
Louisa May Alcott
#94. I don't think secrets agree with me, I feel rumpled up in mind since you told me that ...
Louisa May Alcott
#95. When we make little sacrifices we like to have them appreciated, at least ...
Louisa May Alcott
#96. By the time the lecture ended and the audience awoke, she had built up a splendid fortune for herself (not the first founded on paper) ...
Louisa May Alcott
#97. Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally ...
Louisa May Alcott
#98. I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods.
Louisa May Alcott
#99. 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.
Louisa May Alcott
#100. Never mind. Little girls shouldn't ask questions,' returned Jo sharply.
Now if there is anything mortifying to our feelings when we are young, it is to be told that; and to be bidden to 'run away, dear' is still more trying to us.
Louisa May Alcott
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