Little Men

by Louisa May Alcott

for their rules were few and sensible, and the boys, knowing that they tried to make things easy and happy, did their best to obey.

we don’t believe in making children miserable by too many rules, and too much study.

Boys at other schools probably learned more from books, but less of that better wisdom which makes good men. Latin, Greek, and mathematics were all very well, but in Professor Bhaer’s opinion, self knowledge, self-help, and self-control were more important, and he tried to teach them carefully. People shook their heads sometimes at his ideas, even while they owned that the boys improved wonderfully in manners and morals. But then, as Mrs. Jo said to Nat, “it was an odd school.”

to be good, and to love to be good.

“Sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good in everything.”

It takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity, in a world so full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts. Feeling this, the Bhaers gathered up all the crumbs they could find to feed their flock of hungry sparrows, for they were not rich, except in charity.

“Help one another,” was a favorite Plumfield motto, and Nat learned how much sweetness is added to life by trying to live up to it.

for she believed that the small hopes and plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.

for no matter how lost and soiled and worn-out wandering sons may be, mothers can forgive and forget everything as they fold them in their fostering arms.