Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
Louisa May AlcottRead
I’m not like the rest of you; I never made any plans about what I’d do when I grew up; I never thought of being married, as you did. I couldn’t seem to imagine myself anything but stupid little Beth, trotting about at home, of no use anywhere but there. I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is leaving you all. I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep emotional connection to home and loved ones, emphasizing the difficulty of leaving them behind.
In this quote, Louisa May Alcott reflects on the complexities of personal identity and the strong ties to family and home that can define an individual. The speaker feels a profound sense of belonging and attachment, suggesting that the thought of separation, even in the afterlife, brings a sense of sorrow, illustrating how intertwined one's sense of self can be with their relationships and surroundings.
In practice
A farewell speech at a family gathering.
Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling.
You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.
"Stay" is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.
... swept into the giddy vortex which keeps so many young people revolving aimlessly, till they go down or are cast upon the shore, wrecks of what they might have been
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.
It takes two flints to make a fire.
And yet, words are the passkeys to our souls. Without them, we can't really share the enormity of our lives.
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
Everybody is a story. When I was a child, people sat around kitchen tables and told their stories. We don't do that so much anymore. Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way the wisdom gets passed along. The stuff that helps us to live a life worth remembering.
The less you demand total fulfillment from relationships, the more you can appreciate them for the beautiful tapestries they are, in which absolute and relative, perfect and imperfect, infinite and finite are marvelously interwoven. You can stop fighting the shifting tides of relative love and learn to ride them instead. And you come to appreciate more fully the simple, ordinary heroism involved in opening to another person and forging real intimacy.
I find that in this day and generation, the meanest men have the lowest estimate of woman; that the greater the man is, the grander he is, the more he thinks of mother, wife and daughter.
Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.
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