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.
They did feel it, yet neither spoke of it, for often between ourselves and those nearest and dearest to us there exists a reserve which it is very hard to overcome.
But that autumn the serpent got into Meg’s paradise, and tempted her like many a modern Eve, not with apples, but with dress.
I wish I had a horse; then I could run for miles in this splendid air, and not lose my breath.” Jo.
Don’t grieve and fret or think that you can comfort yourself by being idle and trying to forget. Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace. Hope and keep busy.
If only we had this,’ or ‘If we could only do that,’ quite forgetting how much they already had, and how many things they actually could do. So they asked an old woman what spell they could use to make them happy, and she said, ‘When you feel discontented, think over your blessings, and be grateful.
Went to Wiesbaden first, a pleasant, gay place, full of people.
Yes, you do. You get everything you want out of people. I don’t know how you do it, but you are a born wheedler.” “Thank you. Fire away.
Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and Mother of us all, feeling sure that they, and they only, could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come.
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.
The thought that insignificant as she was, she yet might do some good, made her very careful of her acts and words, and so anxious to keep her heart contented and her face happy, that she forgot her clothes, and made others do the same.
Where have you been, and what are you hiding behind you?” asked Meg, surprised to see, by her hood and cloak, that lazy Amy had been out so early. “Don’t laugh at me, Jo; I didn’t mean anyone should know till the time came. I only meant to change the little bottle for a big one, and I gave all my money to get it, and I’m truly trying not to be selfish anymore.
If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what.
Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and Mother of us all, feeling sure that they, and they only, could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come. She did not rebuke Jo with saintly speeches, only loved her better for her passionate affection, and clung more closely to the dear human love, from which our Father never means us to be weaned, but through which He draws us closer to Himself.
Don’t laugh, but your nose is such a comfort to me,” and Amy softly caressed the well-cut feature with artistic satisfaction.
Meg, as the eldest, was Samuel Pickwick, Jo, being of a literary turn, Augustus Snodgrass, Beth, because she was round and rosy, Tracy Tupman, and Amy, who was always trying to do what she couldn’t, was Nathaniel Winkle.
You are a hero-worshipper, my dear; and if people don’t come up to the mark you are so disappointed that you fail to see the fine reality which remains when the pretty romance ends.
Many wise and true sermons are preached us every day by unconscious ministers in street, school, office, or home; even a fair table may become a pulpit, if it can offer the good and helpful words which are never out of season. Amy’s conscience preached her a little sermon from that text, then and there, and she did what many of us do not always do – took the sermon to heart, and straightway put it in practice.
It is not cowardly to flee temptation, and nobody whose opinion is worth having will ridicule any brave attempt to conquer one’s self. Don’t mind it, Charlie, but stand fast, and I am sure you will succeed.
Many men can be what the world calls great: very few men are what God calls good. This is the harder task to choose, yet the only success that satisfies, the only honor that outlives death.