Little Women Quotes

[Meg has twisted her ankle and Laurie took her home in his carriage]

Amy: He put snow on your ankle? With his own hands?

Marmee: I won't have my girls being silly about boys. To bed! Jo dear.

Amy: Everything lovely happens to Meg.

Meg: [Sarcastically] Oh yes, indeed.

Laurie: Fellow artists, may I present myself as an actor, a musician, and a loyal and very humble servant of the club.

Jo March: We'll be the judge of that.

Laurie: In token of my gratitude and as a means of promoting communication between adjoining nations, shouting from windows being forbidden, I shall provide a post office in our hedge, to further incourage the bearing of our souls and the telling of our most appalling secrets. I do pledge never to reveal what I recieve in confindence here.

Meg: Well, then. Do take your place Rodrigo.

Jo March: Sir Rodrigo.

Younger Amy March: Do you love Laurie more than you love me?

Jo: Don't be such a beetle! I could never love anyone as I love my sisters.

Jo: If I weren't going to be a writer I'd go to New York and pursue the stage. Are you shocked?

Laurie: Very.

Marmee: I am going to write this man a letter.

Jo: A letter. That'll show him.

Jo: What's going to happen?

Friedrich: The inevitable.

Dr. Bangs: There is nothing to be done. If I bleed her, it would finish her. Best send for the mother.

Laurie: Forgive me. I have already done so. Mrs. March arrives on the train this night.

Amy: I don't wanna die. I've never even been kissed. I've waited my whole to be kissed, and what if I miss it?

Laurie: I tell you what. I promise to kiss you before you die.

Friedrich: But I have nothing to give you. My hands are empty.

[entwines her hands with his]

Jo: Not empty now.

Laurie: I have loved you since the moment I clapped eyes on you. What could be more reasonable than to marry you?

Jo March: We'd kill each other.

Laurie: Nonsense!

Jo March: Neither of us can keep our temper-...

Laurie: I can, unless provoked.

Jo March: We're both stupidly stubborn, especially you. We'd only quarrel!

Laurie: I wouldn't!

Jo March: You can't even propose without quarreling.

Laurie: I'm quite taken by that one.

Jo: That's Meg!

Laurie: Meg.

Jo: That's my sister. She's completely bald in front.

Josephine 'Jo' March: You plastered yourself on him!

Meg March: It's proper to take a gentleman's arm if it's offered!

Jo March: I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.

Mr. Mayer: You should have been a lawyer, Miss March.

Jo March: I should have been a great many things, Mr. Mayer.

Younger Amy March: One periwinkle sash...

[clears throat]

Younger Amy March: Advertisements. One periwinkle sash belonging to Mr. N. Winkle has been abscondated from the wash line... which gentlemen desires any reports leading to its recovery.

Jo: Imagine, giving up Italy to come live with that awful old man.

Meg: [Meg tsks] Oh Jo, please don't say awful; it's slang.

Amy: Do you hear from Jo? She has befriended a German professor.

Laurie: Yes, well, no doubt he's showing her the ways of the world.

Amy: I do not wish to be courted by someone who is still in love with my sister!

Laurie: I'm not in love with Jo.

Amy: Then how do you explain your jealousy?

Laurie: I envy her happiness. I envy his happiness. I envy John Brooke for marrying Meg. I hate Fred Vaughn. And if Beth had a lover I would despise him too. Just as you have always known that you would never marry a pauper, I have always known I should be part of the March family.

Amy: I do not wish to be loved for my family.

Laurie: Any more than Fred Vaughn wishes to be loved for his 40,000 a year!

Beth: If God wants me with Him, there is none who will stop Him. I don't mind. I was never like the rest of you... making plans about the great things I'd do. I never saw myself as anything much. Not a great writer like you.

Jo: Beth, I'm not a great writer.

Beth: But you will be. Oh, Jo, I've missed you so. Why does everyone want to go away? I love being home. But I don't like being left behind. Now I am the one going ahead. I am not afraid. I can be brave like you.

Beth: [hearing Jo crying] Are you thinking about father?

Jo March: [whimpering] My hair!

Amy March: [after hearing of Jo's need to get away from Laurie] Aunt March is going to France.

Jo: FRANCE? Oh! That's ideal! I'd put up with anything to go!

Amy March: [hesitates] No, she has asked me to accompany her.

Marmee: [Jo has been to visit Aunt March to try and get money for a train ticket] 25? Can Aunt March spare this much?

Jo: I couldn't bear to ask.

[she takes off her hat, everyone gasps - she's got short hair]

Jo: I sold my hair.

Younger Amy March: [Jo is curling Meg's hair] What's that smell? Like burnt feathers.

Jo: Aaahh!

Meg: You've ruined me!

Jo March: [uncovers John's eyes] Surprise!

Marmee: John. You have a daughter.

Hannah: And a son.

[Marmee and Hannah hands the twins to John]

Meg: Oh, Marmee, I can't believe you did this four times.

John Brooke: Yes, but never two at once, my darling.

Friedrich Bhaer: I am going to the west. They need teachers and they are not so concerned about the accent.

Jo March: I don't mind it either.

Marmee: Wouldn't this have made a wonderful school?

Jo: A school.

Marmee: Hmm. What a challenge that would be.

Meg: Have you heard from the professor?

Jo: No. No, we did not part well.

Meg: Well, John and I don't always agree but then we mend it.

Jo: Teddy? Oh, this is magic!

Laurie: Jo, you are absolutely

Jo: Covered in flour! Oh dear.

Marmee: I fear you would have a long engagement, three or four years. John must secure a house before you can marry and do his service to the union.

Jo: John? Marry? You mean that poky old Mr Brooke? How did he weasel his way into this family?

Marmee: Jo! Mr Brooke has been very kind to visit father in the hospital every day.

Jo: He's dull as powder Meg, can't you at least marry someone amusing?

Meg: I'm fond of John, he's kind and serious and I'm not afraid of being poor.

Jo: Marmee, you can't just let her go and marry him.

Meg: I'd hardly just go and marry anyone.

Marmee: I would rather Meg marry for love and be a poor man's wife than marry for riches and lose her self-respect.

Meg: So, you don't mind that John is poor.

Marmee: No, but I'd rather he have a house.

Jo: Why must we marry at all? Why can't things just stay as they are?

Marmee: It's just a proposal, nothing can be decided on. Now girls? Don't spoil the day.

Jo: Meg? John Brooke stole your glove.

Meg: Which glove? Not my white one.

Jo: Laurie says he keeps it in his pocket. Hannah, don't you think he ought to give it back?

Hannah: It isn't what I think that matters.

Laurie: Meg?

Meg: Please don't tell Jo how I've behaved.

Laurie: As long as you won't tell anyone how I've behaved.

Meg: I was just playing a part. To see what it felt like to be Belle Gardiner with four proposals and 20 pairs of gloves.

Laurie: You're worth ten of those girls.

Boston Matron: Did you see the way that March girl has gone after the Laurence heir?

Boston Matron: Best thing that could happen to the Marches.

Meg: This ridiculous dress, I've been tripping over it all night.

Laurie: Tie something around your neck where it can do you some good.

Marmee: [as revenge, Amy has burned a precious manuscript] It is a very great loss and you have every right to be put out. But don't let the sun go down on your anger. Forgive each other, begin again tomorrow.

Jo: I will never forgive her.

Friedrich Bhaer: You know, when first I saw you I thought "ah, she is a writer".

Jo: What made you think so?

[Friedrich indicates her inky fingers]

Jo: Friedrich, this is what I write. My apologies if it fails to live up to your high standards.

Friedrich Bhaer: Jo, there is more to you than this. If you have the courage to write it.

Jo: I don't have an opera dress.

Friedrich Bhaer: Where we are sitting, we shall not be so... formal.

Jo: My book! Someone's publishing my book! Hannah! Hannah, someone's publishing my book!

Hannah: Heaven help us!

Jo: But it came without a letter, how did it arrive?

Hannah: Foreign gentleman brought it. Odd name, Fox or Bear.

Jo: Bhaer! Did you ask him to wait?

Hannah: I thought he was one of Miss Amy's European friends come with a wedding gift. I told him Miss March and Mr Laurie were living next door.

Jo: Oh Hannah! You didn't!

Jo: [shocked at the decline of Beth's health] Marmee.

Marmee: She wouldn't let us send for you sooner. The doctor has been a number of times but it's beyond all of us and I think she's been waiting for you before she...

Friedrich Bhaer: You do not take wine?

Jo: Only medicinally.

Friedrich Bhaer: Pretend you've got a cold.

Marmee: [reading a letter] "Aunt March is bedridden and would not survive a sea voyage. Amy must bide her time and return later".

[sighs]

Marmee: Just as well.