“Amy's lecture did Laurie good, though, of course, he did not own it till long afterward. Men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole.”

American novelist, short story writer, and poet

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. Raised in New England by transcendentalist parents, she wrote in the 19th century and is best known for Little Women and its sequels. Her most familiar work is Little Women, first published in 1868, followed by Good Wives, Little Men, and Jo's Boys. She began writing young, encouraged by her family, and grew up among prominent intellectuals such as Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.