Little Women

I have been reading this book for like a month because I have so little time to read. But it is one of the BEST books I have ever read! I love the style of writing, the descriptions, the story...it's just really good. So here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. It's pretty long...but it's really good reading!

#1-This is Jo speaking to Marmee the day Amy fell in the frozen river. "It's my dreadful temper! I try to cure it: I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever. Oh, Mother, what shall I do? What shall I do?" cried poor Jo, in dispair.
"Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault," said Mrs. March...
"You don't know, you can't possibly guess how bad it is! It seems as if I could do anything when I'm in a passion; I get so savage, I could hurt anyone and enjoy it. I'm afraid I shall do something dreadful some day, and spoil my life, and make everybody hate me! Oh Mother, help me, do help me!"
"I will my child, I will...remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it. Jo dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them. You think your temper is the worst in the world but mine used to be just like this..."
"That is what troubles me- for the sharp words fly out before I know what I'm about, and the more I say the worse I get, till it's a pleasure to hurt poeple's feelings and say dreadful things. Tell me how you do it Marmee dear."
"If I don't seem to need help, it is because I have a better friend, even than Father, to comfort and sustain me. My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. his love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as your come to your mother."
[Jo] led my her mothers hand, had drawn nearer to that Friend who welcomes every child with a love stronger than that of any Father, tenderer than that of any Mother.

#2- Jo and Professor Bhaer are at a party together and some young philosophers start up a conversation near them, "It dawned upon her gradually that the world was being picked to pieces, and put together on new, and according to the talkers, on infinitely better principles than before, that religion was in a fair way to be reasoned into nothingness, and intellect was to be the only God. Jo knew nothing about philosophy or metaphysics of any sort, but a curious excitement, half pleasurable , half painful, came over her as she listened with a sense of being turned adrift into time and space...
Now Mr. Bhaer was a diffident man and slow to offer his own opinions, not because they were unsettled, but too sincere and earnest to be lightly spoken. As he glanced from Jo to several other young people, attracted by the brilliancy of the philosophic pyrotechnics, he knit his brows and longed to speak, fearing that some inflammable young soul would be led astray by the rockets, to find when the display was over that they had only an empty stick or a scorched hand. He bore it as long as he could, but when he was appealed to for an opinion, he blazed up with honest indignation and defended religion with all the eloquence of truth. Somehow, as he talked, the world got right again to Jo; the old beliefs, that had lasted so long, seemed better than the new; God was not a blind force, and immortality was not a pretty fable, but a blessed fact. She began to see that Character is a better possession that money, rank, intellect, or beauty, and that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, 'truth, reverence, and good will,' then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great."

#3- Beth has just told Jo that she knows she is going to die. "Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety; it shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations. Beth could not reason upon or explain the faith that gave her courage and patience to give up life, and cheerfully wait for death. Like a confiding child, she asked no questions, but left everything to God and nature, Father and mother of us all, feeling sure that they , and they only , could teach and strengthen heart and spirit for this life and the life to come...Beth lay a minute thinking, and then said in her quiet way, 'I don't know how to express myself, and shouldn't try to anyone but you, because I can't speak out except to my Jo. 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 made any plans about what I'd do when I grew up; I never thought of being married, as you all did. I couldn't seem to imagine myself anything but stupid little Beth, trotting about at home, of no use anywhere but there. 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 shall be homesick for you even in heaven.'"

#4- The most beautiful description I have ever read in a book. Beth's death. (It moved me to tears in the cafeteria at school today)"So the spring days came and went, the sky grew clearer, the earth greener, the flowers were up fair and early, and the birds came back in time to say good-by to Beth, who, like a tired but trustful child, clung to the hands that had led her all her life, as Father and Mother guided her tenderly through the Valley of the Shadow, and gave her up to God.
Seldom except in books do the dying utter memorable words, see visions, or depart with beautified countenances, and those who have sped many parting souls know that to most, the end comes as naturally and simply as sleep. As Beth had hoped, the "tide went out easily, " and in the dark hour before the dawn, on the bosom where she had drawn her first breath, she quietly drew her last, with no farewell but one loving look, one little sigh.
When morning came, for the first time in many months the fire was out, Jo's place was empty, and the room was very still. But a bird sang blithely on a budding bough, close by, the snowdrops blossomed freshly at the window, and the spring sunshine streamed in like a benediction over the placid face upon the pillow--a face so full of painless peace that those who loved it best smiled through their tears, and thanked God that Beth was well at last."