"John Brooke is acting dreadfully, and Meg likes it!"

"Love is a great beautifier."

"Young things like you don't need any ornaments but those you wear to-night: youth, health, intelligence, and modesty."

"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."

"A faithful friend is a strong defense; And he that hath found him hath found a treasure."

"The more one gets the more one wants."

"Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret."

"I think this power of living in our children is one of the sweetest things in the world."

"I want to do something splendid. Something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead I think I shall write books."

"Dan clung to her in speechless gratitude, feeling the blessedness of mother love, - that divine gift which comforts, purifies, and strengthens all who seek it."

"Women work a good many miracles and I have a persuasion that they may preform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings. Let the boys be boys the longer the better and let the young men sew their wild oats if they must, but mothers, sisters and friends may help to make the crop a small one and keep many tares from spoiling the harvest by believing and showing that they believe in the possibility of loyalty to the virtues which make men manliest in good women's eyes."

"She would make a man of me. She puts strength and courage into me as no one else can. She is unlike any girl I ever saw; there's no sentimentality about her; she is wise, and kind, and sweet. She says what she means, looks you straight in the eye, and is as true as steel."

"What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?"

"Many can argue not many converse."

"To be strong, and beautiful, and go round making music all the time. Yes, she could do that, and with a very earnest prayer Polly asked for the strength of an upright soul, the beauty of a tender heart, the power to make her life a sweet and stirring song, helpful while it lasted, remembered when it died."

"Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art."

"Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up. Even when they do it is not perfect and they sigh for more and lose better things in struggling for them."

"I've been so bothered with my property, that I'm tired of it, and don't mean to save up any more, but give it away as I go along, and then nobody will envy me, or want to steal it, and I shan't be suspecting folks and worrying about my old cash."

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."

"Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes."

"Leave him free, and the mere sense of liberty would content him, joined to the knowledge that his presence was dear to those whom he loved best."

"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."

"Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are."

"It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way."

"I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us."

"There are things that mothers can manage best when they do their duty."

"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. He helped and comforted me, and showed me that I must try to practise all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example. It was easier for your sakes than for my own; a startled or surprised look from one of you, when I spoke sharply, rebuked me more than any words could have done; and the love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward I could receive for my efforts to be the woman I would have them copy."

"One's outlook is a part of his virtue."

"Jo's face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her, and she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed it, but did not troubled herself to make inquiries, for she had learned that the best way to manage Jo was by the law of contraries, so she felt sure of being told everything if she did not ask."

"You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty."

"Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace."

"Rose: A real sacrifice is giving up something you want or enjoy very much, isn't it?Alec: Yes.Rose: Doing it one's own self because one loves another person very much and wants her to be happy?Alec: Yes.Rose: And doing it pleasantly, and being glad about it, and not minding the praise if it doesn't come?Alec: Yes dear, that is the true spirit of self-sacrifice..."

"Gentlemen, be courteous to the old maids, no matter how poor and plain and prim, for the only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of rank, age, or color."

"On some occasions, women, like dreams, go by contraries."

"Send me all the advice you like. I'll use as much as I can."

"Mine first --mine last-- mine even in the grave!"

"Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us."

"I wish wearing flat-irons on our heads would keep us from growing up. But buds will be roses, and kittens, cats, - more's the pity!"

"The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them."

"I rather miss my wild girl; but if I get a strong, helpful, tender-hearted woman in her place, I shall feel quite satisfied."

"Wisely mingled poetry and prose."

"Mother Atkinson thought that every one should have a trade, or something to make a living out of , for rich people may grow poor, you know, and poor people have to work.... so when I saw how happy and independent those young ladies were, I wanted to have a trade, and then it wouldn't matter about money, though I like to have it well enough."

"What splendid dreams young people build upon a word, and how bitter is the pain when the bright bubbles burst."

"Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged."

"You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it. Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off."

"Education is not confined to books, and the finest characters often graduate from no college, but make experience their master, and life their book. [Some care] only for the mental culture, and [are] in danger of over-studying, under the delusion . . . that learning must be had at all costs, forgetting that health and real wisdom are better."

"Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling."

"It does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants."

"Beth ceased to fear him from that moment, and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life, for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride."

"Kindness in looks and words and ways is true politeness, and any one can have it if they only try to treat other people as they like to be treated themselves."