I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead.
Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Louisa May Alcott died in 1888, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1868. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.
OUT of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
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