Top 500 Louisa May Alcott Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one.”

— Louisa May Alcott

402. “I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copy-books; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end,” he said, dolefully.”

— Louisa May Alcott

403. “I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!”

— Louisa May Alcott

404. “Now I’ve offended him. Well, if it does him good, I’m glad, if it makes him hate me, I’m sorry, but it’s true, and I can’t take back a word of it” -Amy.”

— Louisa May Alcott

405. “He was not a perfect child, by any means, but his faults were of the better sort; and being early taught the secret of self-control, he was not left at the mercy of appetites and passions, as some poor little mortals are, and then punished for yielding to the temptations against which they have no armor.”

— Louisa May Alcott

406. “Please could I say one word?” was the question three times repeated before a rough head bobbed out from the grotto of books in which Mac usually sat. “Did anyone speak?” he asked, blinking in the flood of sunshine that entered with Rose.”

— Louisa May Alcott

407. “Finish it if you choose only remember, my girl, that one may read at forty what is unsafe at twenty, and that we never can be too careful what food we give that precious yet perilous thing called imagination.”

— Louisa May Alcott

408. “Fathers and mothers are too absorbed in business and housekeeping to study their children, and cherish that sweet and natural confidence which is a child’s surest safeguard, and a parent’s subtlest power.”

— Louisa May Alcott

409. “I might’ve said ‘yes,’ not because I love him any more, but because I care more to be loved than when he went away.”

— Louisa May Alcott

410. “Prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.”

— Louisa May Alcott

411. “By-and-by Jo roamed away upstairs, for it was rainy, and she could not walk. A restless spirit possessed her, and the old feeling came again, not bitter as it once was, but a sorrowfully patient wonder why one sister should have all she asked, the other nothing. It was not true, she knew that and tried to put it away, but the natural craving for affection was strong, and Amy’s happiness woke the hungry longing for someone to ’love with heart and soul, and cling to while God let them be together.”

— Louisa May Alcott

412. “I don’t understand it. What can there be in a simple little story like that to make people praise it so?” she said, quite bewildered. “There is truth in it, Jo, that’s the secret.”

— Louisa May Alcott

413. “Don’t be sorry, I won’t let it hurt me. I’ll forget all the bad and remember only the good, for I did enjoy a great deal.”

— Louisa May Alcott

414. “Always mature for her age, she had gained a certain aplomb in both carriage and conversation, which made her seem more of a woman of the world than she was, but her old petulance now and then showed itself, her strong will still held its own, and her native frankness was unspoiled by foreign polish.”

— Louisa May Alcott

415. “The least of of us have some influence in this big world; and perhaps my little girl can do some good by showing others that a contented heart and a happy face are better ornaments than any Paris can give her.”

— Louisa May Alcott

416. “Souls and bodies should go on together.”

— Louisa May Alcott

417. “For these foolish, affectionate people made a jubilee of every little household joy.”

— Louisa May Alcott

418. “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.”

— Louisa May Alcott

419. “Well, don’t make a porcupine of yourself, it isn’t becoming.”

— Louisa May Alcott

420. “Being still too young to go often to the theater, and not rich enough to afford any great outlay for private performances, the girls put their wits to work, and necessity being the mother of invention, made whatever they needed.”

— Louisa May Alcott

421. “You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius.”

— Louisa May Alcott

422. “Mark my words, Jo, you’ll go next.”

— Louisa May Alcott

423. “The girls gave their hearts into their mother’s keeping – their souls into their father’s; and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth, and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses life and outlives death.”

— Louisa May Alcott

424. “It’s my dreadful temper! I try to cure it, I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever.”

— Louisa May Alcott

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

— Louisa May Alcott

426. “So every day is a battle, and I’m so tired I don’t want to live; only it’s cowardly to die till you have done something.”

— Louisa May Alcott

427. “We’ll never draw that curtain any more, and I give you leave to look as much as you like. I just wish, though, instead of peeping, you’d come over and see us.”

— Louisa May Alcott

428. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,′ grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. ‘It’s so dreadful to be poor!’ sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.”

— Louisa May Alcott

429. “Now and then genius carries all before it, but not often. We have to climb slowly, with many slips and falls.”

— Louisa May Alcott

430. “How can girls like to have lovers and refuse them? I think it’s dreadful.”

— Louisa May Alcott

431. “You, you are, you’re a great deal too good for me, and I’m so grateful to you, and so proud and fond of you, 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

432. “No, I drank champagne and romped and tried to flirt, and was altogether abominable,” said Meg reproachfully.”

— Louisa May Alcott

433. “Meg learned, that a woman’s happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor the art of ruling it not as a queen, but as a wise wife and mother.”

— Louisa May Alcott

434. “Jo knew nothing about philosophy or metaphysics of any sort, but a curious excitement, half pleasurable, half painful, came over her, as she listened with a sense of being turned adrift into time and space, like a young balloon out on a holiday.”

— Louisa May Alcott

435. “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.”

— Louisa May Alcott

436. “I thought it was only a habit, easy to drop when I liked: But it is stronger than I; and sometimes I feel as if possessed of a devil that will get the better of me, try as I may.”

— Louisa May Alcott

437. “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

438. “If he is old enough to ask the question he is old enough to receive true answers. I am not putting the thoughts into his head, but helping him unfold those already there. These children are wiser than we are, and I have no doubt the boy understands every word I have said to him. Now, Demi, tell me where you keep your mind.”

— Louisa May Alcott

439. “I’m the oldest,” began Meg, but Jo cut in with a decided, “I’m the man of the family now Papa is away, and I shall provide the slippers, for he told me to take special care of Mother while he was gone.”

— Louisa May Alcott

440. “Everyone scattered like leaves before a gust of wind, and the quiet, happy household was broken up as suddenly as if the paper had been an evil spell.”

— Louisa May Alcott

441. “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

442. “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

443. “I planned to spend mine in new music,” said Beth, with a little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle-holder.”

— Louisa May Alcott

444. “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

445. “A crash, a cry, and a laugh from Laurie, accompanied by the indecorous exclamation, “Jupiter Ammon! Jo’s upset the cake again!” caused a momentary flurry, which was hardly over when a flock of cousins arrived, and ‘the party came in’, as Beth used to say when a child.”

— Louisa May Alcott

446. “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

447. “I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.”

— Louisa May Alcott

448. “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.”

— Louisa May Alcott

449. “Well, the winter’s gone, and I’ve written no books, earned no fortune, but i’ve made a friend worth baving and I’ll try to keep him all my life.”

— Louisa May Alcott

450. “Amy’s lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward. 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. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole.”

— Louisa May Alcott