Great Throughts Treasury

"Don't you wish you could give it to me, Laurie?"

"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"

"Education is not confined to books, and the finest characters often graduate from no college, but make experience their master and life their book. [Some care] only for the mental culture, and [are] in danger of over-studying, under the delusion . . . that learning must be had at all costs, forgetting that health and real wisdom are better."

"Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace."

"Every house needs a grandmother in it."

"Every genuine act or word, no matter how trifling it seems, leaves a sweet and strengthening influence behind."

"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."

"Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up. Even when they do, it is not perfect, and they sigh for more, and lose better things in struggling for them."

"For action is always easier than quiet waiting."

"Feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them."

"For a girl with eyes like hers has a will and is not ruled by anyone but a lover."

"For he had plenty of money and nothing to do, and Satan is proverbially fond of providing employment for full and idle hands. The poor fellow had temptations enough from without and from within, but he withstood them pretty well, for much as he valued liberty, he valued good faith and confidence more,"

"For in that sad yet happy hour, she had learned not only the bitterness of remorse and despair, but the sweetness of self-denial and self-control, and led by her mother's hand, she had drawn nearer to the Friend who always welcomes every child with a love stronger than that of any father, tenderer than that of any mother."

"For in this queer world of ours, fatherly and motherly hearts often beat warm and wise in the breasts of bachelor uncles and maiden aunts; and it is my private opinion that these worthy creatures are a beautiful provision of nature for the cherishing of other people's children. They certainly get great comfort out of it, and receive much innocent affection that otherwise would be lost."

"For it is a very solemn thing to be arrested in the midst of busy life by the possibility of the great change."

"For with eyes made clear by many tears, and a heart softened by the tenderest sorrow, she recognized the beauty of her sister's life?uneventful, unambitious, yet full of the genuine virtues which 'smell sweet, and blossom in the dust', the self-forgetfulness that makes the humblest on earth remembered soonest in heaven, the true success which is possible to all."

"Gentlemen, be courteous to the old maids, no matter how poor and plain and prim, for the only chivalry worth having is that which is the readiest to to pay deference to the old, protect the feeble, and serve womankind, regardless of rank, age, or color."

"Freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul."

"Glad you like my first tableau. Come and see number two. Hope it isn't spoilt; it was very pretty just now. This is 'Othello telling his adventures to Desdemona'."

"For no matter how lost and soiled and worn-out wandering sons may be, mothers can forgive and forget everything as they fold them into their fostering arms. Happy the son whose faith in his mother remains unchanged, and who, through all his wanderings, has kept some filial token to repay her brave and tender love."

"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."

"Go out more, keep cheerful as well as busy, for you are the sunshine-maker of the family, and if you get dismal there is no fair weather."

"Good, old-fashioned ways keep hearts sweet, heads sane, hands busy."

"Growing pale and sober with the thought that her fate was soon to be decided; for, like all young people, she was sure that her whole life could be settled by one human creature, quite forgetting how wonderfully Providence trains us by disappointment, surprises us with unexpected success, and turns our seeming trials into blessing."

"Go and make yourself useful, since you are too big to be ornamental."

"Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace."

"Having learned that people cannot be molded like clay."

"He felt he could willingly give his life for them."

"Had an hour of silent agony that aged him more than years of happy life could have done."

"He looked like an Italian, was dressed like an Englishman, and had the independent air of an American--a combination which caused sundry pairs of feminine eyes to look approvingly after him, and sundry dandies in black velvet suits, with rose-colored neckties, buff gloves, and orange flowers in their buttonholes, to shrug their shoulders, and then envy him his inches."

"He looked at her an instant, for the effect of the graceful girlish figure with pale, passionate face and dark eyes full of sorrow, pride and resolution was wonderfully enhanced by the gloom of the great room, and glimpses of a gathering storm in the red autumn sky."

"He stood behind her, tall and pale, like the ghost of his former self."

"He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many."

"Help one another is part of the religion of our sisterhood."

"Her beauty satisfied [his] artistic eye, her peculiarities piqued his curiosity, her vivacity lightened his ennui, and her character interested him by the unconscious hints it gave of power, pride and passion. So entirely natural and unconventional was she that he soon found himself on a familiar footing, asking all manner of unusual questions, and receiving rather piquant replies."

"Hither, hither, from thy home, airy sprite, i bid thee come! born of roses, fed on dew, charms and potions canst thou brew? bring me here, with elfin speed, the fragment philter witch I need; make it sweet and swift and strong, spirit answer now my song hither i come, from my airy home, afar silver moon. take magic spell, and use it well. or its powers will vanish soon!"

"He was the first, the only love her life, and in a nature like hers such passions take deep root and die-hard."

"How beautiful that is! said Laurie softly, for he was quick to see and feel beauty of any kind."

"Housekeeping ain't no joke."

"Her father's old books were all she could command, and these she wore out with much reading. Inheriting his refined tastes, she found nothing to attract her in the society of the commonplace and often coarse people about her. She tried to like the buxom girls whose one ambition was to get married, and whose only subjects of conversation were smart bonnets and nice dresses. She tried to believe that the admiration and regard of the bluff young farmers was worth striving for; but when one well-to-do neighbor laid his acres at her feet, she found it impossible to accept for her life's companion a man whose soul was wrapped up in prize cattle and big turnips."

"Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written book and more changeable than the cloud shapes in the air."

"I almost wish I hadn't any conscience, it's so inconvenient. If I didn't care about doing the right and didn't feel uncomfortable when doing wrong, I should get on capitally."

"I agree not to expect anything from Mother or you, but I do want to buy Undine and Sintran for myself. I've wanted it so long, said Jo, who was a bookworm."

"I always say my life?s quote is, 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"

"I am a witch and, one day, my disguise I fall down and you will see what they really are: old, ugly, poor and lost. Beware of me, as long as you are on time. You've been warned. Now love me at your peril."

"I am lonely, sometimes, but I dare say it's good for me."

"I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it."

"I ask not for any crown but that which all may win; nor try to conquer any world except the one within."

"I asked for bread, and I got a stone in the shape of a pedestal."

"I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us."