Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) was an American novelist and social reformer, working in the causes of temperance and woman’s suffrage. She is best known for the novel series Little Women (1868, 89,) one of the best-known children’s books of all time.
Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Alcott was mainly taught by her father, the transcendentalist philosopher and educator Bronson Alcott. Alcott was sometimes tutored by such family friends as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Alcott’s early writing did not get recognition until she produced the first volume of Little Women (1868,) a joyful and appealing account of her childhood, portraying herself as Jo March and her sisters May, Elizabeth, and Anna as Amy, Beth, and Meg. The book was an immediate success, so in 1869 she produced the second volume.
Alcott’s other enduring children’s books include Little Men (1871,) Jo’s Boys (1886,) Eight Cousins (1875,) and Rose in Bloom (1876.) She also published more than 30 “dime novels” under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Louisa May Alcott
My definition of a philosopher is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Philosophy
A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Feelings, Self-Control, Control
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.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Wishes
It takes two flints to make a fire.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Anger
A house needs a grandma in it.
—Louisa May Alcott
Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Friends, Friendship
It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Talent, Genius
Love is a great beautifier.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Love
The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
—Louisa May Alcott
I like good strong words that mean something.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Words
What do girls do who haven’t any mothers to help them through their troubles?
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Mothers, Family
I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens, and no more a child. I am old for my age and don’t care much for girls’ things. People think I’m wild and queer; but mother understands and helps me. I have not told anyone about my plans but I am going to be good… . Now I’m going to work really, for I feel a desire to improve and be a help and comfort, not a care and sorrow to my dear mother.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Age
People don’t have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It’s a dreadfully unjust world.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Inheritance
Housekeeping ain’t no joke.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Housework
My father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Learning
Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Graduation
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.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Aspirations, Beauty, Hope
Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Happiness
Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Children, Girls
I resolved to take Fate by the throat and shake the living out of her.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Luck
Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Humility, Modesty
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
—Louisa May Alcott
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.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Imagination, Vision, Goals, Aspirations, Prophecy, Dreams
Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Correction, Truth, Reform
Talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing. I won’t be a commonplace dauber, so I don’t intend to try any more.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Talent
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.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Advice
Money is a needful and precious thing, and when well used, a noble thing, but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Money
Have a 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 bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.
—Louisa May Alcott
She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
—Louisa May Alcott
Topics: Fashion
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