Louisa May Alcott Quotes

The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

~ 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

You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.

~ Louisa May Alcott

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

~ Louisa May Alcott

I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.

~ Louisa May Alcott

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.

~ Louisa May Alcott

In the midst of her tears came the thought, When people are in danger, they ask God to save them; and, slipping down upon her knees, she said her prayer as she had never said it before, for when human help seems gone we turn to Him as naturally as lost children cry to their father, and feel sure that he will hear and answer them.

~ Louisa May Alcott

I ask not for any crownBut that which all may win,Nor try to conquer any worldExcept the one within.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Conceit spoils the finest genius.

~ Louisa May Alcott

But, like all happiness, it did not last long…

~ Louisa May Alcott

Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants…

~ Louisa May Alcott

Dear me! how happy and good we'd be, if we had no worries!

~ Louisa May Alcott

It's lovely to see people so happy.

~ Louisa May Alcott

…feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them.

~ Louisa May Alcott

How little it takes to make a young girl happy! A pretty dress, sunshine, and somebody opposite, and they are blest.

~ Louisa May Alcott

...and Jo laid the rustling sheets together with a careful hand, as one might shut the covers of a lovely romance, which holds the reader fast till the end comes, and he finds himself alone in the work-a-day world again.

~ Louisa May Alcott

John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!

~ Louisa May Alcott

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

~ Louisa May Alcott

…wisely mingled poetry and prose.

~ Louisa May Alcott

I've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Your father, Jo. He never loses patience,--never doubts or complains,--but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully, that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him. He helped and comforted me, and showed me that I must try to practise all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example. It was easier for your sakes than for my own; a startled or surprised look from one of you, when I spoke sharply, rebuked me more than any words could have done; and the love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward I could receive for my efforts to be the woman I would have them copy.

~ 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

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

Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.

~ Louisa May Alcott

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.

~ Louisa May Alcott

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

~ Louisa May Alcott

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

~ Louisa May Alcott

…books are always good company if you have the right sort. Let me pick out some for you.' And Mrs. Jo made a bee-line to the well-laden shelves, which were the joy of her heart and the comfort of her life.

~ Louisa May Alcott

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain

~ 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.

~ Louisa May Alcott

A faithful friend is a strong defense, And he that hath found him hath found a treasure.

~ Louisa May Alcott

…having learned that people cannot be moulded like clay…

~ Louisa May Alcott

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

~ Louisa May Alcott

I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them.

~ Louisa May Alcott

…what splendid dreams young people build upon a word, and how bitter is the pain when the bright bubbles burst.

~ Louisa May Alcott

I wish I had a horse; then I could run for miles in this splendid air, and not lose my breath. Jo

~ Louisa May Alcott

In her secret soul, however, she decided that politics were as bad as mathematics, and that the mission of politicians seemed to be calling each other names…

~ Louisa May Alcott

Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God's sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason.

~ Louisa May Alcott