Top 500 Louisa May Alcott Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can’t explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women.”

— Louisa May Alcott

152. “Rome took all the vanity out of me; for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair.”

— Louisa May Alcott

153. “To Jo’s lively fancy, this fine house seemed a kind of enchanted palace, full of splendors and delights which no one enjoyed. She had long wanted to behold these hidden glories, and to know the “Laurence boy,” who looked as if he would like to be known, if he only ever knew how to begin.”

— Louisa May Alcott

154. “We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.”

— Louisa May Alcott

155. “John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!”

— Louisa May Alcott

156. “I know better!” broke in Laurie. “You think so now, but there’ll come a time when you will care for somebody, and you’ll love him tremendously, and live and die for him. I know you will, it’s your way, and I shall have to stand by and see it,” and the despairing lover cast his hat upon the ground with a gesture that would have seemed comical, if his face had not been so tragic.”

— Louisa May Alcott

157. “If I didn’t care about doing right and didn’t feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”

— Louisa May Alcott

158. “Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn’t worth ruling.”

— Louisa May Alcott

159. “Vive la liberte!”

— Louisa May Alcott

160. “It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.”

— Louisa May Alcott

161. “Mother didn’t say anything about our money, and she won’t wish us to give up everything. Let’s each buy what we want, and have a little fun; I’m sure we work hard enough to earn it,” cried Jo, examining the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner.”

— Louisa May Alcott

162. “I don’t know why I can’t love you as you want me to. I’ve tried, but I can’t change the feeling, and it would be a lie to say I do when I don’t.”

— Louisa May Alcott

163. “Well, if I can’t be happy, I can be useful, perhaps.”

— Louisa May Alcott

164. “I’d take it manfully, and be respected if I couldn’t be loved.”

— Louisa May Alcott

165. “I can’t love anyone else; and I’ll never forget you, Jo, never! never!” with a stamp to emphasize his passionate words. – Laurie.”

— Louisa May Alcott

166. “Oh dear, life is pretty tough sometimes, isn’t it?”

— Louisa May Alcott

167. “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.”

— Louisa May Alcott

168. “I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy.”

— Louisa May Alcott

169. “Remember that frost comes latest to those that bloom the highest.”

— Louisa May Alcott

170. “I’ve learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.”

— Louisa May Alcott

171. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.”

— Louisa May Alcott

172. “You men tell us we are angels, and say we can make you what we will; but the instant we honestly try to do you good, you laugh at us, and won’t listen. which proves how much your flattery is worth.”

— Louisa May Alcott

173. “Is it not meningitis?”

— Louisa May Alcott

174. “The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado.”

— Louisa May Alcott

175. “I put in my list all the busy, useful independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband than love to many of us.”

— Louisa May Alcott

176. “Beth ceased to fear him from that moment, and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life, for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”

— Louisa May Alcott

177. “Now I’m beginning to live a little and feel less like a sick oyster at low tide.”

— Louisa May Alcott

178. “Very likely some Mrs Grundy will observe, “I don’t believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles.” I dare say you don’t, Mrs. Grundy, but it’s true nevertheless. Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings.”

— Louisa May Alcott

179. “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.”

— Louisa May Alcott

180. “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

181. “The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet place, and curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures like a regular bookworm.”

— Louisa May Alcott

182. “By-and-by we shall take turns, for marriage, they say, halves one’s rights and doubles one’s duties.”

— Louisa May Alcott

183. “That is perfectly natural, and quite harmless, if the liking does not become a passion and lead one to do foolish or unmaidenly things. Learn to know and value the praise which is worth having, and to excite the admiration of excellent people by being modest as well as pretty, Meg.”

— Louisa May Alcott

184. “Conceit spoils the finest genius.”

— Louisa May Alcott

185. “There was a good deal of laughing and kissing and explaining, in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home-festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, and then all fell to work.”

— Louisa May Alcott

186. “Then let me advise you to take up your little burdens again, for though they seem heavy sometimes, they are good for us, and lighten as we learn to carry them. Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone. It keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion.” “We’ll.”

— Louisa May Alcott

187. “Dolls are safe companions.”

— Louisa May Alcott

188. “Where’s the use of looking nice, when no one sees me but those cross midgets, and no one cares whether I’m pretty or not?”

— Louisa May Alcott

189. “Men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the lords of creation don’t take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do.”

— Louisa May Alcott

190. “They were enjoying the happy hour that seldom comes but once in any life, the magical moment which bestows youth on the old, beauty on the plain, wealth on the poor, and gives human hearts a foretaste of heaven.”

— Louisa May Alcott

191. “The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture, the sharpest reproof.”

— Louisa May Alcott

192. “Love scenes, if genuine, are indescribable; for to those who have enacted them the most elaborate description seems tame, and to those who have not, the simplest picture seems overdone.”

— Louisa May Alcott

193. “We can’t any of us do all we would like, but we can do our best for every case that comes to us, and that helps amazingly.”

— Louisa May Alcott

194. “I don’t believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burned hair, old gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them.”

— Louisa May Alcott

195. “Love and Loyalty If ever men and women are their simplest, sincerest selves, it is when suffering softens the one, and sympathy strengthens the other.”

— Louisa May Alcott

196. “When Jo’s conservative sister Meg says she must turn up her hair now that she is a “young lady,” Jo shouts, “I’m not! and if turning up my hair makes me one, I’ll wear it in two tails till I’m twenty... I hate to think I’ve got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China aster! It’s bad enough to be a girl anyway, when I like boys’ games and work and manners! I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy; and it’s worse than ever now, for I’m dying to go and fight with Papa, and I can only stay at home and knit, like a poky old woman.”

— Louisa May Alcott

197. “The fear of being an old maid made young girls rush into matrimony with a recklessness that astonishes.”

— Louisa May Alcott

198. “It’s bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boys’ games and work and manners!”

— Louisa May Alcott

199. “To me, love isn’t all. I must look up, not down, trust and honor with my whole heart, and find strenght and integrity to lean on.”

— Louisa May Alcott

200. “So she doesn’t call desertion, poverty, and hard work troubles? She’s a brave little girl, and I shall be proud to know her.”

— Louisa May Alcott