Op Eigen Wieken

“Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.””

— Louisa May Alcott

“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

“...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

“. . . 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

“MY BETH.Sitting patient in the shadowTill the blessed light shall come,A serene and saintly presenceSanctifies our troubled home.Earthly joys and hopes and sorrowsBreak like ripples on the strandOf the deep and solemn riverWhere her willing feet now stand.O my sister, passing from me,Out of human care and strife,Leave me, as a gift, those virtuesWhich have beautified your life.Dear, bequeath me that great patienceWhich has power to sustainA cheerful, uncomplaining spiritIn its prison-house of pain.Give me, for I need it sorely,Of that courage, wise and sweet,Which has made the path of dutyGreen beneath your willing feet.Give me that unselfish nature,That with charity divineCan pardon wrong for love's dear sake”

— Louisa May Alcott

“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

“Is that my boy?’As sure as this is my girl!””

— Louisa May Alcott

“...these hearts of ours are curious and contrary things, and time and nature work their will in spite of us.””

— Louisa May Alcott

“...unlocking the treasuries of real home love and mutual helpfulness, which the poorest may possess, and the richest cannot buy.””

— Louisa May Alcott