Quotes from Louisa May Alcott

Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.

I have nothing to give but my heart so full and these empty hands. They're not empty now.

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 just for the fun of it. --Laurie

Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.

A real gentleman is as polite to a little girl as to a woman.

I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it's good for me…

A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.

Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.

life and love are very precious when both are in full bloom.

That is a good book it seems to me, which is opened with expectation and closed with profit.

Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them?

The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.

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.

I could have been a great many things.

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.

Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.

I like adventures, and I'm going to find some.

Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.

and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander, where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.

Jo's eyes sparkled, for it's always pleasant to be believed in; and a friend's praise is always sweeter than a dozen newspaper puffs.

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, and serve womankind, regardless of rank, age, or color.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.

If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now.

Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.