“i've got the key to my castle in the air, but whether i can unlock the door remains to be seen.”

“love jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.”

“you will care for somebody, and you'll love him tremendously, and live and die for him. i know you will, it's your way, and you will and i'll watch.”

“i think the poets might disagree.”

“well. i'm not a poet, i'm just a woman. and as a woman i have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. even if i had my own money, which i don't, it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. if we had children they would belong to him, not me. they would be his property. so don't sit there and tell me that marriage isn't an economic proposition, because it is. it may not be for you but it most certainly is for me.”

“i want to do something splendid...something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after i'm dead. i don't know what, but i'm on the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday.”

• “women. they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. and they’ve got ambition. and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty. and i’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. i’m so sick of it. but i’m so lonely.”
  • jo: perhaps... perhaps i was too quick in turning him down. laurie.
  • marmee: do you love him?
  • jo: if he asked me again, i think i would say yes. do you think he'll ask me again?
  • marmee: but do you love him?
  • jo: i care more to be loved. i want to be loved.
  • marmee: that is not the same as loving.

“don't try to make me grow up before my time…”

“some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”

“she preferred imaginary heroes to real ones, because when tired of them, the former could be shut up in the tin kitchen till called for, and the latter were less manageable.”

“take some books and read; that’s an immense help; and books are always good company if you have the right sort.”

“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.”

“...the love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward i could receive for my efforts to be the woman i would have them copy.”