Poverty in youth, when it succeeds, has this magnificent property about it, that it turns the whole will towards effort, and the whole soul towards aspiration.

If nature calls itself Providence, society should call itself foresight.

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

I will try and be what he loves to call me—a little woman—and not be rough and wild, but do my duty here, where I am, as well as I can, because I see now that courage isn’t only for soldiers, and battles are fought in kitchens and sickrooms and hearts, where no drum is heard, and no flag is flying.

That’s just why—because talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.

I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo, but I have learned not to show it, and I still hope to learn not to feel it…

We learn from failure, not from success; and our failures have taught us to believe the strange evidence of our eyes, and to act together without delay. We have been blind, but now we must keep notes, keep watch, and keep faith, for there are no little things in great affairs.

I sometimes think we must be mad that we do not flee from this house; but we are men, and must do our duty though it be a dreadful one. We are all drifting in strange seas, and the lights we trust are faint and far; yet, if we hold together and keep our heads clear, the dawn will find us.

For all evils there are two remedies: time and silence.

I am not proud; I am simply a man who has suffered, and who has resolved that others shall suffer in their turn.

Men are not to be judged by the face they show in society, but by the face they show to misfortune.