Good Wives Quotes

“Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“I'm happy as I am, and love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“...Meg learned to love her husband better for his poverty, because it seem to have made a man of him, giving him the strength and courage to fight his own way, and taught him a tender patience with which to bear and comfort the natural longings and failures of those he loved.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“. . . children should draw [a husband & wife] nearer than ever, not separate you, as if they were all yours, and [your husband] had nothing to do but support them. . . . don't neglect husaband for children, don't shut him out of the nursery, but teach him how to help in it. His place is there as well as yours, and the children need him; let him feel that he has his part to do, and he will do it gladly and faithfully, and it will be better for you all. . . . That is the secret of our home happiness: he does not let business wean him from the little cares and duties that affect us all, and I try not to let domestic worries destroy my interest in his pursuits. Each do our part alone in many things, but at home we work together, always. . . . no time is so beautiful and precious to parents as the first years of the little lives given them to train. Don't let [your husband] be a stranger to the babies, for they will do more to keep him safe and happy in this world of trial and temptation than anything else, and through them you will learn to know and love one another as you should.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: Being a Sequel to 'Little Women'. With Illustrations by Jessie T. Mitchell

“MY BETH.

Sitting patient in the shadow
Till the blessed light shall come,
A serene and saintly presence
Sanctifies our troubled home.
Earthly joys and hopes and sorrows
Break like ripples on the strand
Of the deep and solemn river
Where her willing feet now stand.

O my sister, passing from me,
Out of human care and strife,
Leave me, as a gift, those virtues
Which have beautified your life.
Dear, bequeath me that great patience
Which has power to sustain
A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit
In its prison-house of pain.

Give me, for I need it sorely,
Of that courage, wise and sweet,
Which has made the path of duty
Green beneath your willing feet.
Give me that unselfish nature,
That with charity divine
Can pardon wrong for love's dear sake—
Meek heart, forgive me mine!

Thus our parting daily loseth
Something of its bitter pain,
And while learning this hard lesson,
My great loss becomes my gain.
For the touch of grief will render
My wild nature more serene,
Give to life new aspirations,
A new trust in the unseen.

Henceforth, safe across the river,
I shall see for evermore
A beloved, household spirit
Waiting for me on the shore.
Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,
Guardian angels shall become,
And the sister gone before me
By their hands shall lead me home.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“When Laurie said 'Good-by', he whispered significantly, "It won't do a bit of good, Jo. My eye is on you; so mind what you do, or I'll come and bring you home.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“Is that my boy?’
As sure as this is my girl!”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“...these hearts of ours are curious and contrary things, and time and nature work their will in spite of us.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“...unlocking the treasuries of real home love and mutual helpfulness, which the poorest may possess, and the richest cannot buy.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be home-sick for you even in heaven”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“You men tell us we are angels, and say we can make you what we will, but the instant we honestly try to do you good, you laugh at us and won’t listen, which proves how much your flattery is worth.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“E' dalle piccolezze che si vede il carattere delle persone.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“...she discovered that her feet were cold, her head ached, and that her heart was colder than the former, fuller of pain than the latter.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“You can go through the world with your elbows out and your nose in the air, and call it independence, if you like. That's not my way.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“She felt as if she had stabbed her dearest friend, and when he left her without a look behind him, she knew that the boy Laurie never would come again.”
― Louisa May Alcott , Good Wives

“pure-hearted old man, and were both rebuked and saved; gifted men found a companion in him; ambitious men caught glimpses of nobler ambitions than their own; and even worldlings confessed that his beliefs were beautiful and true, although ‘they wouldn’t pay’. To outsiders, the five energetic women seemed to rule the house, and so they did in many things; but the quiet scholar, sitting among his books, was still the head of the family, the household conscience, anchor, and comforter; for to him the busy, anxious women always turned in troublous times, finding him, in the truest sense of those sacred words, husband and father. The girls gave their hearts into their mother’s keeping, their souls into their father’s; and to both parents, who lived and laboured 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”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“Very likely some Mrs Grundy will observe, "I don't believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." I dare say you don't, Mrs. Grundy, but it's true nevertheless. Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“By-and-by Jo roamed away upstairs, for it was rainy, and she could not walk. A restless spirit possessed her, and the old feeling came again, not bitter as it once was, but a sorrowfully patient wonder why one sister should have all she asked, the other nothing. It was not true, she knew that and tried to put it away, but the natural craving for affection was strong, and Amy's happiness woke the hungry longing for someone to 'love with heart and soul, and cling to while God let them be together.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“When people do one mean thing they are very likely to do another”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“Ah, Jo, instead of wishing that, thank God that "Father and Mother were particular," and pity from your heart those who have no such guardians to hedge them around with principles which may seem like prison walls to impatient youth...”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“She knew she looked well, she loved to dance, she felt that her foot was on the native heath in a ball-room, and enjoyed the delightful sense of power which comes when young girls first discover the new and lovely kingdom they are born to rule by virtue of beauty, youth, and womanhood.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“In order that we may start afresh, and go to Meg’s wedding with free minds, it will be well to begin with a little gossip about the Marches. And here let me premise, that if any of the elders think there is too much ‘lovering’ in the story, as I fear they may (I’m not afraid the young folks will make that objection), I can only say with Mrs March, ‘What can you expect when I have four gay girls in the house, and a dashing young neighbour over the way?”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“La risata è pronta quando il cuore è felice.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“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; now I'm going to make you hear, and give me an answer, for I can't go on so any longer.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“Henceforth, safe across the river,
I shall see forever more
A beloved, household spirit
Waiting for me on the shore.
Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,
Guardian angels shall become,
And the sister gone before me,
By their hands shall lead me home.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“They haf no right to put poison in the sugarplum, and let the small ones eat it.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“¡No sabes cuánto! Lo intento, pero cada día pierdo un poco más de fuerza y comprendo que no la recuperaré jamás. Es como una marea, Jo; cuando crece, va lenta, pero es imparable.

—Pues debemos pararla. Tu marea no puede crecer ahora, eres demasiado joven, ¡sólo tienes diecinueve años! Beth, no puedo dejarte marchar...”
― Louisa May Alcott, Aquellas mujercitas

“It's no use, Jo”
― Luisa May Alcott, Good Wives

“Elegance has a bad effect on my constituition.”
― Luisa May Alcott, Good Wives