Little Women Quotes

Quote 1: "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.'" Chapter 1, pg. 3

Quote 2: "'Don't laugh at me, Jo! I didn't mean anyone should know until the time came, and I gave all my money to get it, and I'm truly trying not to be selfish any more.'" Chapter 2, pg. 18

Quote 3: "'Little Raphael,' as her sisters called her, had a decided talent for drawing, and was never so happy as when copying flowers, designing fairies, or illustrating stories with queer specimens of art." Chapter 4, pg. 47

Quote 4: "'That boy is suffering for society and fun,' she said to herself. 'His grandpa does not know what's good for him, and keeps him shut up all alone. He needs a party of jolly boys to play with, or somebody young and lively....'" Chapter 5, pg. 55

Quote 5: "But Beth, though yearning for the grand piano, could not pluck up courage to go to the 'Mansion of Bliss,' as Meg called it." Chapter 6, pg. 69

Quote 6: "Jo began to dance a jig,...Amy nearly fell out of the window in her surprise, and Meg exclaimed, with uplifted hands, 'Well I do believe the world is coming to an end!'" Chapter 6, pg. 76

Quote 7: "During the fifteen minutes that followed, the proud and sensitive girl suffered a shame and pain which she never forgot. To others it might seem a ludicrous or trivial affair, but to her it was a hard experience, for during the twelve years of her life she had been governed by love alone...." Chapter 7, pg. 81

Quote 8: "'It's my dreadful temper! I try to cure it; I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. Oh, Mother, what shall I do? What shall I do?' cried poor Jo, in despair." Chapter 8, pg. 93

Quote 9: "'I'm not Meg tonight, I'm 'a doll' who does all sorts of crazy things. Tomorrow I shall put away my 'fuss and feathers' and be desperately good again.'" Chapter 9, pg. 111

Quote 10: "'You may try your experiment for a week and see how you like it. I think by Saturday night you will find that all play and no work is as bad as all work and no play,'" their Mother said. Chapter 11, pg. 127

Quote 11: "'If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now,' said Jo, always ready with a plan." Chapter 13, pg. 169

Quote 12: "How still the room was as they listened breathlessly, how strangely the day darkened outside, and how suddenly the whole world seemed to change, as the girls gathered about their mother, feeling as if all the happiness and support of the lives was about to be taken from them." Chapter 15, pg. 186

Quote 13: "...Beth quietly put on her hood, filled her basket with odds and ends for the poor children, and went out into the chilly air with a heavy head and a grieved look in her patient eyes." Chapter 17, pg. 205.

Quote 14: "As if waked by the stir, Hannah started out of her sleep, hurried to the bed, looked at Beth, felt her hands, listened at her lips, and then, throwing her apron over her head, sat down to rock to and for, exclaiming, under her breath, 'The fever's turned, she's sleepin' nat'ral, her skin's damp, and the breaths easy. Praise be given!'" Chapter 18, pg. 220

Quote 15: "The little girl was very sincere in all this, for being left alone outside the safe home nest, she felt the need of some kind hand to hold by so sorely that she instinctively turned to the strong and tender Friend, whose fatherly love most closely surrounds his little children." Chapter 19, pg. 227

Quote 16: "'Indeed, sir, I cannot tell. Mother forbade it. Laurie has confessed, asked pardon, and been punished quiet enough. We don't keep silence to shield him, but someone else, and it will make more trouble if you interfere.'" Chapter 21, pg. 250

Quote 17: "Of course there was a general stampede, and for several minutes everybody seemed to lose their wits, for the strangest things were done, and no one said a word. Mr. March became invisible in the embrace of four pairs of loving arms." Chapter 22, pg. 257

Quote 18: "Now Aunt March possessed in perfection the art of rousing the spirit of opposition in the gentlest people, and enjoyed doing it. The best of us have a spice of perversity in us, especially when we are young and in love." Chapter 23, pg. 268

Quote 19: "If 'genius is eternal patience,' as Michelangelo affirms, Amy had some claim to the divine attribute, for she persevered in spite of all obstacles, failures, and discouragements, firmly believing that in time she would do something worthy to be called 'high art.'" Chapter 26, pg. 302

Quote 20: "...When the first soreness was over, she could laugh at her poor little book, yet believe in it still, and feel herself the wiser and stronger for the buffeting she had received." Chapter 27, pg. 321

Quote 21: "'I only did as I'd be done by. You laugh at me when I say I want to be a lady, but I mean a true gentlewoman in mind and manners, and I try to do it as far as I know how. I can't explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women,'" Amy says. Chapter 30, pg. 363

Quote 22: "'No, it is a new [pain], but I can bear it.' And Beth tried to check her tears." Chapter 32, pg. 387

Quote 23: "'There is a demand for whisky, but I think you and I do not care to sell it. If the respectable people knew what harm they did, they would not feel that the living was honest.'" Chapter 34, pg. 418-9

Quote 24: "I've loved you ever since I've known you, Jo, couldn't help it, you've been so good to me. I've tried to show it, but you wouldn't let me; no I'm going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can't go on so any longer.'" Chapter 35, pg. 426

Quote 25: "For a minute her eyes were too dim for seeing, and, when they cleared, Beth was looking up at her so tenderly that there was hardly any need for her to say, 'Jo, dear, I'm glad you know it. I've tried to tell you, but I couldn't.'" Chapter 36, pg. 438

Quote 26: "'You have grown abominably lazy, and you like gossip, and waste time on frivolous things, you are contented to be petted and admired by silly people, instead of being loved and respected by wise ones.'" Chapter 39, pg. 480

Quote 27: "When morning came, for the first time in many months the fire was out, Jo's place was empty and the room was very still. But a bird sang blithely on a budding bough, close by, the snowdrops blossomed freshly at the window, and the spring sunshine streamed in like a benediction over the placid face upon the pillow--a face so full of painless peace that those who loved it best smiled though their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last." Chapter 40, pg. 493

Quote 28: "...There was no need of having a scene, hardly any need of telling Amy that he loved her, she knew it without words and had given him his answer long ago." Chapter 41, pg. 505-6

Quote 29: "'An old maid, that's what I'm to be. A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps....'" Chapter 43, pg. 517

Quote 30: "'Jo, I haf nothing but much love to gif you; I came to see if you could care for it, and I waited to be sure that I was something more than a friend. Am I? Can you make a little place in your heart for old Fritz?' he added, all in one breath." Chapter 43, pg. 558

Quote 31: "Touched to the heart, Mrs. March could only stretch out her arms, as if to gather children and grandchildren to herself, and say, with face and voice full of motherly love, gratitude, and humility--'Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!'" Chapter 47, pg. 578