Top 500 Louisa May Alcott Quotes (2026 Update)
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451. “If he had any sorrow, “it sat with its head under its wing,” and he turned only his sunny side to the world.”

— Louisa May Alcott

452. “I beg your pardon for being so rude, but sometimes you forget to put down the curtain at the window where the flowers are. And when the lamps are lighted, it’s like looking at a picture to see the fire, and you all around the table with your mother. Her face is right opposite, and it looks so sweet behind the flowers, I can’t help watching it. I haven’t got any mother, you know.”

— Louisa May Alcott

453. “So, sitting at the dear little piano, Beth softly touched the keys, and in the sweet voice they had never thought to hear again, sang to her own accompaniment the quaint hymn, which was a singularly fitting song for her.”

— Louisa May Alcott

454. “The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”

— Louisa May Alcott

455. “We can’t give up our girls for a dozen fortunes. Rich or poor, we will keep together and be happy in one another.”

— Louisa May Alcott

456. “Why in the world should you spend your money, worry your family, and turn the house upside down for a parcel of girls who don’t care a sixpence for you? I.”

— Louisa May Alcott

457. “Give them all mu dear love and a kiss. tell them I think of them by day, pray for them by night, and find my best comfort in their affection at all times.”

— Louisa May Alcott

458. “I’d rather stay here, thank you.” “Well, you can’t, there isn’t room. Go and make yourself useful, since you are too big to be ornamental.”

— Louisa May Alcott

459. “This is a fairy flower,′ said the Elf, ’invisible to every eye save yours; now listen while I tell its power. When your heart is filled with loving thoughts, when some kindly deed has been done, some duty well performed, then from the flower there will arise the sweetest, softest fragrance, to reward and gladden you.”

— Louisa May Alcott

460. “Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such and unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.”

— Louisa May Alcott

461. “The first of June! The Kings are off to the seashore tomorrow, and I’m free. Three months’ vacation – how I shall enjoy it!” exclaimed Meg, coming home one warm day to find Jo laid upon the sofa in an unusual state of exhaustion, while Beth took off her dusty boots, and Amy made lemonade for the refreshment of the whole party.”

— Louisa May Alcott

462. “Don’t try to make me grow up before my time...”

— Louisa May Alcott

463. “No te desanimes, querida, recuerda que tras las nubes siempre llega la luz.”

— Louisa May Alcott

464. “Genius. Don’t you wish you could give it to me, Laurie?” And she slyly smiled in his disappointed face.”

— Louisa May Alcott

465. “Up in the garret, where Jo’s unquiet wanderings ended, stood four little wooden chests in a row, each marked with its owner’s name, and each filled with relics of childhood and girlhood ended now for all.”

— Louisa May Alcott

466. “Hither, hither, from thy home, Airy sprite, I bid thee come! Born of roses, fed on dew, Charms and potions canst thou brew? Bring me here, with elfin speed, The fragrant philter which I need. Make it sweet and swift and strong, Spirit, answer now my song!”

— Louisa May Alcott

467. “There are a good many hard times in this life of ours, but we can always bear them if we ask help n the right way.”

— Louisa May Alcott

468. “My only comfort,” she said to Meg, with tears in her eyes, “is that Mother doesn’t take tucks in my dresses whenever I’m naughty, as Maria Parks’s mother does. My dear, it’s really dreadful, for sometimes she is so bad her frock is up to her knees, and she can’t come to school. When I think of this deggerredation, I feel that I can bear even my flat nose and purple gown with yellow sky-rockets on it.”

— Louisa May Alcott

469. “It is my opinion that this day will never come to an end,” said Prince, with a yawn that nearly rent him assunder.”

— Louisa May Alcott

470. “But, Sir, I thought every story should have some sort of a moral, so I took care to have a few of my sinners repent.”

— Louisa May Alcott

471. “It’s a great mistake for young girls like Meg to leave themselves nothing to do but dress, give orders, and gossip. When I was first married, I used to long for my new clothes to wear out or get torn, so that I might have the pleasure of mending them, for I got heartily sick of doing fancywork and tending my pocket handkerchief.”

— Louisa May Alcott

472. “Don’t you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties with make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and for bear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?”

— Louisa May Alcott

473. “Send me all the advice you like. I’ll use as much as I can.”

— Louisa May Alcott

474. “How well we pull together, don’t we?” said Amy, who objected to silence just then. “So well that I wish we might always pull in the same boat. Will you, Amy?” very tenderly. “Yes, Laurie,” very low. Then they both stopped rowing, and unconsciously added a pretty little tableau of human love and happiness to the dissolving views reflected in the lake.”

— Louisa May Alcott

475. “Some old people keep young at heart in spite of wrinkles and gray hairs, can sympathize with children’s little cares and joys, make them feel at home, and can hide wise lessons under pleasant plays, giving and receiving friendship in the sweetest way.”

— Louisa May Alcott

476. “Providence trains us by disappointment, surprises us with unexpected success, and turns our seeming trials into blessings.”

— Louisa May Alcott

477. “If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what.”

— Louisa May Alcott

478. “Beth seemed quite herself again, for at eighteen neither heads nor hearts ache long, and a loving word can medicine most ills.”

— Louisa May Alcott

479. “It was easier to try 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

480. “If life is often as hard as this, I don’t see how we ever shall get through it,” added her sister despondently.”

— Louisa May Alcott

481. “Not until months afterward did Jo understand how she had the strength of mind to hold fast to the resolution she had made when she decided that she did not love her boy, and never could. It was very hard to do, but she did it, knowing that delay was both useless and cruel.”

— Louisa May Alcott

482. “She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty, and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, ‘truth, reverence, and good will,’ then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great.”

— Louisa May Alcott

483. “The sun was low, and the heavens glowed with the splendor of an autumn sunset. Gold and purple clouds lay on the hilltops, and rising high into the ruddy light were silvery white peaks that shone like the airy spires of some Celestial City.”

— Louisa May Alcott

484. “What a pleasant life she might have, if she only chose. I don’t envy her much, in spite of her money, for after all rich people have about as many worries as poor ones, I think,” added Jo.”

— Louisa May Alcott

485. “Amy was much offended that her overtures of peace had been repulsed, and began to wish she had not humbled herself, to feel more injured than ever, and to plume herself on her superior virtue in a way which was particularly exasperating.”

— Louisa May Alcott

486. “A large sheaf, but I know there’s room in your heart for it, Marmee dear,” added Meg’s tender voice. Touched to the heart, Mrs. March could only stretch out her arms, as if to gather children and grandchildren to herself, and say, with face and voice full of motherly love, gratitude, and humility... “Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!”

— Louisa May Alcott

487. “My little girl, I would face a dozen storms far worse than this to keep your soul as stainless as snow; for it is the small temptations which undermine integrity, unless we watch and pray, and never think them too trivial to be resisted.”

— Louisa May Alcott

488. “I’m not a show, Aunty, and no one is coming to stare at me, to criticize my dress, or count the cost of my luncheon. I’m too happy to care what anyone says or thinks, and I’m going to have my little wedding just as I like it.”

— Louisa May Alcott

489. “My lady,” as her friends called her, sincerely desired to be a genuine lady, and was so at heart, but had yet to learn that money cannot buy refinement of nature, that rank does not always confer nobility, and that true breeding makes itself felt in spite of external drawbacks.”

— Louisa May Alcott

490. “I wish it was as easy for me to do little things to please people as it is for you. I think of them, but it takes too much time to do them, so 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

491. “He was in one of his moods, for the day had been both unprofitable and unsatisfactory, and he was wishing he could live it over again.”

— Louisa May Alcott

492. “Jo’s ambition was to do something very splendid. What it was, she had no idea as yet, but left it for time to tell her, and meanwhile, found her greatest affliction in the fact that she couldn’t read, run and ride as much as she liked.”

— Louisa May Alcott

493. “Katy don’t amoose me; and I must be amoosed, ‘cause I ‘m fwactious; mamma said I was!” sobbed Maud, evidently laboring under the delusion that fractiousness was some interesting malady.”

— Louisa May Alcott

494. “Sentimental? Yes. Thank Gott, we Germans believe in sentiment, and keep ourselves young mit it. Your English ‘you’ is so cold, say ‘thou,’ heart’s dearest, it means so much to me,” pleaded Mr. Bhaer, more like a romantic student than a grave professor.”

— Louisa May Alcott

495. “This suited the young lady better than twilight confidences, tender pressures of the hand, and eloquent glances of the eye, for with Jo, brain developed earlier than heart, and 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

496. “No one was in sight, the smooth road sloped invitingly before her, and finding the temptation irresistible, Jo darted away, soon leaving hat and comb behind her and scattering hairpins as she ran. Laurie reached the goal first and was quite satisfied with the success of his treatment, for his Atlanta came panting up with flying hair, bright eyes, ruddy cheeks, and no signs of dissatisfaction in her face.”

— Louisa May Alcott

497. “With tears and prayers and tender hands, Mother and sisters made her ready for the long sleep that pain would never mar again, seeing with grateful eyes the beautiful serenity that soon replaced the pathetic patience that had wrung their hearts so long, and feeling with reverent joy that to their darling death was a benignant angel, not a phantom full of dread.”

— Louisa May Alcott

498. “Lounging and larking doesn’t pay,” observed Jo, shaking her head. “I’m tired of it and mean to go to work at something right off.”

— Louisa May Alcott

499. “If you loved me, Jo, I should be a perfect saint, for you could make me anything you like.”

— Louisa May Alcott

500. “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