Great Throughts Treasury

"I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully."

"I don't believe any of you suffer as I do, cried Amy, for you don't have to go to school with impertinent girls, who plague you if you don't know your lessons, and laugh at your dresses, and label your father if he isn't rich, and insult you when your nose isn't nice."

"I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy. And it's worse than ever now, for I'm dying to go and fight with Papa. And I can only stay home and knit, like a poky old woman."

"I could have been a great many things."

"I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!"

"I don't believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burned hair, old gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them."

"I don't like favors; they oppress and make me fell like a slave. I'd rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent."

"I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods."

"I can't help seeing that you are very lonely, and sometimes there is a hungry look in your eyes that goes to my heart."

"I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country."

"I don't envy her much, in spite of her money, for after all rich people have about as many worries as poor ones, I think"

"I don't think secrets agree with me; I feel rumpled up in my mind since you told me that."

"I don't like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I'm going to find some."

"I don't see why God made any night; day is so much pleasanter."

"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff."

"I don't pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you'd imagine. I'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and, though I can't explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit."

"I have at last got the little room I have wanted so long, and am very happy about it. It does me good to be alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the woods when I like."

"I for one don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and minors any longer, for I am none of them."

"I hate ordinary people!"

"I have nothing to give but my heart so full and these empty hands. They're not empty now."

"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."

"I intend to study love as well as medicine, for it is one of the most mysterious and remarkable diseases that afflict mankind, and the best way to understand it is to have it. I may catch it someday, and then I should like to know how to treat and cure it."

"I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end."

"I know I do?teaching those tiresome children nearly all day, when I'm longing to enjoy myself at home, began Meg, in the complaining tone again."

"I know whom I shall marry. He must be handsome, young, clever enough, and very rich-ever so much richer than the Lawrences. His family mustn't object, and I shall be very happy, for they shall be kind, sell-bred, generous people, and they shall like me. He shall be the oldest and have the estate, and should be a city house in a fashionable street, and twice as comfortable as anything and full of solid luxury. One of us must marry well; Meg didn't, Jo didn't, Beth can't yet, so I shall, and make everything cozy all around."

"I like adventures, and I?m going to find some."

"I Know I shall be homesick for you... Even in heaven"

"I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think anyone will deny us."

"I like good strong words that mean something."

"I love my liberty too well to be in a hurry to give it up for any mortal man."

"I make so many beginnings there never will be an end."

"I may be strong-minded, but no one can say I'm out of my sphere now, for woman's special mission is supposed to be drying tears and bearing burdens."

"I love my gallant captain with all my heart and soul and might, and never will desert him, while God lets us be together. Oh, Mother, I never knew how much like heaven this world could be, when two people love and live for one another!"

"I only mean to say that I have a feeling that it never was intended I should live long. I'm not like the rest of you."

"I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I'm not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven."

"I resolved to take Fate by the throat and shake the living out of her."

"I shall keep my book on the table here, and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good, and help me through the day."

"I put in my list all the busy, useful independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband than love to many of us."

"I planned to spend mine in new music, said Beth, with a little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle-holder."

"I shall think her very mean indeed if she does not give me some of her gloves, for she has many of them, I've seen them myself? and as you can see, I took the hint... but not much love went into THAT package did it, my dear?"

"I shall love her all my life, shall be to her a faithful friend, and if I cannot remain loyal to both God and her I shall renounce her and never see her face again. You call this folly; to me it is a hard duty, and the more I love her the worthier of her will I endevor to become by my own integrity of soul."

"I sell my children, and though they feed me, they don't love me as hers do."

"I should have cause to be proud of this year's work;' and Mrs. Jo sat smiling over her book as she built castles in the air, just as she used to when she was a girl, only then they were for herself, and now they were for other people, which is the reason perhaps that some of them came to pass in reality for charity is an excellent foundation to build anything upon."

"I should have been a great many things, Mr. Mayor."

"I suspect that the real attraction was a large library of fine books, which was left to dust and spiders since Uncle March died."

"I think it was so splendid in Father to go as a chaplain when he was too old to be drafted, and not strong enough for a soldier, said Meg warmly."

"I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them."

"I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous, that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream."

"I thought it was only a habit, easy to drop when I liked: But it is stronger than I; and sometimes I feel as if possessed of a devil that will get the better of me, try as I may."

"I think this power of living in our children is one of the sweetest things in the world."