Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcottwas an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Womenand its sequels Little Menand Jo's Boys. Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth29 November 1832
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
Resolved to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.
The dirt is picturesque, so I don't mind.
…often between ourselves and those nearest and dearest to us there exists a reserve which it is very hard to overcome.
I'm tired of praise; and love is very sweet, when it is simple and sincere like this.
books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.
Mrs. Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gayety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds.
The girls gave their hearts into their mother's keeping-their souls into their father's; and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth, and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses life and outlives death.
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.
I'm afraid I couldn't like him without a spice of human naughtiness.
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.
We've got minds and souls as well as hearts; ambition and talents as well as beauty and accomplishments; and we want to live and learn as well as love and be loved. I'm sick of being told that is all a woman is fit for! I won't have anything to do with love until I prove that I am something beside a housekeeper and a baby-tender!
…what splendid dreams young people build upon a word, and how bitter is the pain when the bright bubbles burst.
I've learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.