“Right Jo better be happy old maids than unhappy wives or unmaidenly girls running about to find husbands.”

“My Jo, you may say anything to your mother, for it is my greatest happiness and pride to feel that my girls confide in me and know how much I love them.”

“…I wanted to show that the mother was the heroine as soon as possible. I'm tired of love-sick girls and runaway wives. We'll prove that there's romance in old women also.”

“Never mind. Little girls shouldn't ask questions,' returned Jo sharply.Now if there is anything mortifying to our feelings when we are young, it is to be told that; and to be bidden to 'run away, dear' is still more trying to us.”

“…Jo valued the letter more than the money, because it was encouraging, and after years of effort it was so pleasant to find that she had learned to do something…”

“I'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queen's on thrones, without self-respect and peace.”

“And mother-like, Mrs. Jo forgot the threatened chastisement in tender lamentations over the happy scapegrace…”