Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
But please hug and kiss me, everyone, and don’t mind my dress, I want a great many crumples of this sort put into it today.
It was forunate that tea was at hand, to produce a lull and provide refreshment...
Ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial.
I asked for bread, and I got a stone in the shape of a pedestal.
For the wise old man was universally beloved, and ministered so beautifully to his flock that many of them thanked him all their lives for the help given to both hearts and souls.
The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.
I’ll try to be what Father loves to call me, a ‘little woman,’ and not be rough and wild but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.
I never knew how much like heaven this world could be, when two people love and live for one another!
My father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child.
Our actions are in our own hands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, and think twice before you do anything.
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.
I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.
Into each life some rain must fall, Somedays must be dark and sad and dreary.
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.
If you feel your value lies in being merely decorative, I fear that someday you might find yourself believing that’s all that you really are. Time erodes all such beauty, but what it cannot diminish is the wonderful workings of your mind: Your humor, your kindness, and your moral courage. These are the things I cherish so in you. I so wish I could give my girls a more just world. But I know you’ll make it a better place. – Marmee.
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 head contented and face happy, that she forgot her clothes, and made others do the same. She did not know it, but that good old fashion of simplicity made the plain gowns pretty, and the grace of unconsciousness beautified their little wearer with the charm that makes girlhood sweetest to those who truly love and reverence it.
I don’t want a religion that I put away with my Sunday clothes, and don’t take out till the day comes around again; I want something to see and feel and live day by day.
When you feel discontented, think over your blessings, and be grateful.