Louisa May Alcott

I shall keep my book on the table here, and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good, and help me through the day.

Marmee: Oh, Jo. Jo, you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? You’re ready to go out and – and find a good use for your talent. Tho’ I don’t know what I shall do without my Jo. Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.

People don't have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world.

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

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

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.

A time will come when you will find that in gaining a brief joy you have lost your peace forever.

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

Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can

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

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.

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.

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.

If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.

Money is a needful and precious thing, and when well used, a noble thing, but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.

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

A child her wayward pencil drew On margins of her book; Garlands of flower, dancing elves, Bud, butterfly, and brook, Lessons undone, and plum forgot, Seeking with hand and heart The teacher whom she learned to love Before she knew t'was Art.

Conceit spoils the finest genius.

I love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.

It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.