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.

Amy: We bear our souls and tell the most appalling secrets.

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

Jo March: Well, of course Aunt March prefers Amy over me. Why shouldn't she? I'm ugly and awkward and I always say the wrong things. I fly around throwing away perfectly good marriage proposals. I love our home, but I'm just so fitful and I can't stand being here! I'm sorry, I'm sorry Marmee. There's just something really wrong with me. I want to change, but I - I can't. And I just know I'll never fit in anywhere.

Jo: If only I could be like father and crave violence and go to war and stand up to the lions of injustice.

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.

Marmee March: Oh, Jo. Jo, you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? You're ready to go out and - and find a good use for your talent. Tho' I don't know what I shall do without my Jo. Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.

Amy: You don't need scores of suitors. You need only one... if he's the right one.

Friedrich Bhaer: You must write from life, from the depths of your soul!

Laurie: Someday you'll find a man, a good man, and you'll love him, and marry him, and live and die for him. And I'll be hanged if I stand by and watch.

Josephine 'Jo' March: I won't have a sister who is a lazy ignoramus.

Josephine 'Jo' March: If lack of attention to personal finances is a mark of refinement, then I say the Marches must be the most elegant family in Concord!

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.

Jo: Late at night my mind would come alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation.

Younger Amy March: Butter! Oh isn't butter divinity? Oh god thank you for this breakfast.

Younger Amy March: Well, it's not like being stuck with the dreadful nose you get. One does have a choice to whom one loves.

Amy: Jo, how could you, your one beauty!

Amy: Have you heard from Jo? She has befriended a German professor.

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 that I belong to the March family.

Amy: I will not be loved for my family...

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

Jo March: [whimpering] My hair!

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.

Jo: Teddy, please don't ask me.

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

Jo: Aaahh!

Meg: You've ruined me!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jo: Alright, I'm up. Horrible piano.

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: 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!

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.