Ah! Thou rifest me such hope and courage, and I had nothing to GIF back but a full heart and these empty hands," cried the Professor, quite overcome. Jo never, would never learn to be proper, for when he said that as they stood upon the steps, she just put both hands into his, whispering tenderly, "Not empty now," and, stooping down, kissed her Friedrich under the umbrella.

— Louisa May Alcott

A little kingdom I possess Where thoughts and feelings dwell And very hard the task I find Of governing it well.

— Louisa May Alcott

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

...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

And mother-like, Mrs. Jo forgot the threatened chastisement in tender lamentations over the happy scapegrace…

— Louisa May Alcott

As to the other three, if they had been perfection they would not have been real girls, and you could not have wept over their trials and laughed over their pleasures.

— Louisa May Alcott

…a woman's always safe and comfortable when a fellow's down on his luck.

— Louisa May Alcott

…because talent isn't genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.

— Louisa May Alcott

Because they are mean is no reason why I should be. I hate such things, and though I think I have a right to be hurt, I don't intend to show it. (Amy March)

— Louisa May Alcott

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

— Louisa May Alcott