Quotes from Good Wives

Louisa May Alcott ·  248 pages

Rating: (17.3K votes)


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


“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, quote from Good Wives


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


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


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



About the author

Louisa May Alcott
Born place: in Germantown, Pennsylvania, The United States
Born date November 29, 1832
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