Submitted by Maggie
“I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, loved, and respected; to have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send. To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing, which can happen to a woman; and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience. It is natural to think of it; right to hope and wait for it; and wise to prepare for it; so that, when the happy time comes, you may feel ready for the duties and worthy of the joy.”
-Marmee in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
“In my day, children of fourteen and fifteen didn’t dress in the height of fashion; go to parties, as nearly like those of grown people as it’s possible to make them; lead idle, giddy, unhealthy lives, and be blasé at twenty. We were little folk till eighteen or so; worked and studied, dressed and played, like children; honored our parents; and our days were much longer in the land than now.”
-Grandmother Shaw in An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
“Of all the silly freaks of this fast age, that of little people playing at love is about the silliest. It [is] a very serious thing; and, it [is] far more improper to flirt with one boy than to coast [sled] with a dozen.”
-from An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
“I know little about love, ma’am,” I said. “I might not know…were I in love or not.”
“That is a situation common to many women. Sometimes ‘tis truly love, and other times just the pleasure of knowing a man finds thee desirable.”
“But there must be a way to tell.”
“There are many ways. Love is a strange thing, Constance. Rarely is it the thunder and lightning, or even the moonlight and tender words that the poets might have us think. More often it is knowing that your happiness lies in being always near a certain person—the realization that without him you are incomplete.”
-Mrs. Hopkins in Constance by Patricia Clopp
originally published in the Winter 2000 YLCF Journal
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