Louisa May Alcott Quotes

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

Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can

The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.

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

Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.

It’s amazing how lovely common things become, if one only knows how to look at them.

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.

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, Little Women

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.

Where the heart is the mind works best.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us – and those around us – more effectively. Look for the learning.

Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.

Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.

Prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.

I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.

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.

The emerging woman … will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied…strength and beauty must go together.

When Emerson’s library was burning at Concord, I went to him as he stood with the firelight on his strong, sweet face, and endeavored to express my sympathy for the loss of his most valued possessions, but he answered cheerily, ‘Never mind, Louisa, see what a beautiful blaze they make! We will enjoy that now.’ The lesson was one never forgotten and in the varied lessons that have come to me I have learned to look for something beautiful and bright.

Many argue; not many converse.

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

The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado.

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

People want to be amused, not preached at, you know. Morals don’t sell nowadays.

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.

Conceit spoils the finest genius.