Quotes by Louisa May Alcott

“I've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”

“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that ...”

“I want to do something splendid Something heroic or wonderful that wont be forgotten after Im dead I think I shall write books.”

“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.”

“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, healt...”

“The emerging woman ... will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied...strength and beauty must go together.”

“Right Jo better be happy old maids than unhappy wives or unmaidenly girls running about to find husbands.”

“Gentlemen, be courteous to the old maids, no matter how poor and plain and prim, for the only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble,...”

“on some occasions, women, like dreams, go by contraries.”

“proved that woman isn't a half but a whole human being, and can stand alone.”

“It is a merciful provision my dears, for it takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world. You are costly creatures, boys, and it is well that mothers, sisters, wive...”

“I'm always ready to talk, shouldn't be a woman if I were not,' laughed Mrs. Jo”

“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 p...”

“Its genius simmering, perhaps. Ill let it simmer, and see what comes of it, he said, with a secret suspicion all the while that it wasnt genius, but something far more common. Whatever it was, it s...”

“Your father, Jo. He never loses patience,--never doubts or complains,--but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully, that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him. He helped and comforted m...”

“I rather miss my wild girl; but if I get a strong, helpful, tender-hearted woman in her place, I shall feel quite satisfied.”

“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 thats all that you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish...”

“He was neither rich nor great, young nor handsome, - in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing or brilliant; and yet he was as attractive as a genial fire, and people seemed to gather abou...”

“Education is not confined to books, and the finest characters often graduate from no college, but make experience their master, and life their book. [Some care] only for the mental culture, and [ar...”