Resolved to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.
She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
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.
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety; it shows itself in acts rather than words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations.
I don’t like favors; they oppress and make me fell like a slave. I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.
Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will come back buttered.
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.
Men are often bad, but babies never are.
I’m perfectly miserable; but if you consider me presentable, I die happy.
Your father, Jo. He never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him.
Many wise and true sermons are preached us everyday 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.
Laurie felt just then that his heart was entirely broken and the world a howling wilderness.
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!