Louisa May Alcott - Little Women (1868)

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I wait for a chance to confer a great favor, and let the small ones slip; but they tell best in the end, I fancy.

Louisa May Alcott
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.

Louisa May Alcott
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
Misfortune was much more interesting to her than good luck.

Louisa May Alcott
You think your temper is the worst in the world, but mine used to be just like it. … I've been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it. … I've learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.

Louisa May Alcott
Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.

Louisa May Alcott
I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end. (Jo March)

Louisa May Alcott
Such hours are beautiful to live, but very hard to describe…

Louisa May Alcott
You may try your experiment for a week and see how you like it. I think by Saturday night you will find that all play and no work is as bad as all work and no play

Louisa May Alcott
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.

Louisa May Alcott
The homeliest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.

Louisa May Alcott
But please hug and kiss me, everyone, and don't mind my dress, I want a great many crumples of this sort put into it today.

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

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

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
Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault.

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

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

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

Louisa May Alcott
The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture, the sharpest reproof.

Louisa May Alcott
The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet place, and curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures like a regular bookworm.

Louisa May Alcott