Louisa May Alcott Quotes

237 Sourced Quotes

But buds will be roses, and kittens, cats, — more's the pity!

Louisa May Alcott
Power is a dangerous thing. Be careful that you don't abuse it or let it make a tyrant of you.

Louisa May Alcott
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety; it shows itself in acts rather than words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.

Louisa May Alcott
Now we are expected to be as wise as men who have had generations of all the help there is, and we scarcely anything.

Louisa May Alcott
Work is and always has been my salvation and I thank the Lord for it.

Louisa May Alcott
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 [are] in danger of over-studying, under the delusion... that learning must be had at all costs, forgetting that health and real wisdom are better.

Louisa May Alcott
I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully…

Louisa May Alcott
They always looked back before turning the corner, for their mother was always at the window to nod and smile, and wave her hand at them. Somehow it seemed as if they couldn't have got through the day without that, for whatever their mood might be, the last glimpse of that motherly face was sure to affect them like sunshine.

Louisa May Alcott
I for one don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and minors any longer, for I am none of them.

Louisa May Alcott
She preferred imaginary heroes to real ones, because when tired of them, the former could be shut up in the tin kitchen till called for, and the latter were less manageable.

Louisa May Alcott
I think this power of living in our children is one of the sweetest things in the world…

Louisa May Alcott
Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad; babies never are.

Louisa May Alcott
Where's the use of looking nice, when no one sees me but those cross midgets, and no one cares whether I'm pretty or not?

Louisa May Alcott
I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us.

Louisa May Alcott
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
The young people were playing that still more absorbing game in which hearts are always trumps.

Louisa May Alcott
Now I am beginning to live a little, and feel less like a sick oyster at low tide.

Louisa May Alcott
I don't pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you'd imagine. I'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and, though I can't explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit.

Louisa May Alcott
In vain she told herself that he was unworthy any woman's trust and love, still the unconquerable sentiment that once made her happiness now remained to become her torment.

Louisa May Alcott
I like good strong words that mean something.

Louisa May Alcott
The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlid here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter.

Louisa May Alcott
She's got most of the symptoms — is twittery and cross, doesn't eat, lies awake, and mopes in corners.

Louisa May Alcott
Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;
But hand, you shall work alway!

Louisa May Alcott
Laurie, you're an angel! How shall I ever thank you?" "Fly at me again. I rather liked it," said Laurie, looking mischievous, a thing he had not done for a fortnight.

Louisa May Alcott
But, Polly, a principle that can't bear being laughed at, frowned on, and cold-shouldered, isn't worthy of the name.

Louisa May Alcott
Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!

Louisa May Alcott
Laurie felt just then that his heart was entirely broken and the world a howling wilderness.

Louisa May Alcott
We're twins, and so we love each other more than other people…

Louisa May Alcott
She fell into the moody, miserable state of mind which often comes when strong wills have to yield to the inevitable.

Louisa May Alcott
The spring sunshine streamed in like a benediction over the placid face upon the pillow—a face so full of painless peace, that those who loved it best smiled through their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last.

Louisa May Alcott