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Who really said it

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship

Written by Louisa May Alcott 1832–1888 · American novelist
Verified Free to reuse

This is Alcott's own line — spoken by the character Amy in Little Women, Part Second, Chapter 44 (1869). The popular version swaps her contractions (“I'm”) for the fuller “I am,” a minor but documented misquotation.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1869)

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Provenance

The source

Work
Little Women, Part Second (“Good Wives”), Ch. 44: “My Lord and Lady”
Published
April 1869 (Part First: 30 September 1868), Roberts Brothers, Boston
Spoken by
Amy (March) Laurence, newly married, to her family

Lovely weather so far; I don't know how long it will last, but I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. Come home, dear, and I'll find your bootjack; I suppose that's what you are rummaging after among my things. Men are so helpless, mother. Amy, Ch. 44

Alcott's original text uses contractions (“I'm”), not the “I am” form most often quoted online.

Little Women, Part Second, Chapter 44

How we verified this

  • The line is spoken by Amy, newly married to Laurie, in Part Second, Chapter 44, “My Lord and Lady,” per the full chapter text at Wikisource ↗.
  • Wikiquote's Alcott page lists the same passage and explicitly flags that it is “sometimes...slightly misquoted” with “I am” replacing the novel's “I'm,” per Wikiquote ↗.
  • Part Second of Little Women was first published in April 1869, about three months after Part First appeared on 30 September 1868, per Wikipedia ↗.
Public domain

Little Women was first published in 1868–69 by Roberts Brothers, decades before the 1931 U.S. public-domain cutoff, so the novel and this line are in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

Often misattributed

The credit to Louisa May Alcott is correct — she wrote this line — but two details are commonly lost in circulation: it is spoken by the character Amy, not stated as Alcott's own personal maxim, and the wording is slightly altered from the original.

Popular quote sites and merchandise Misquoted

Alcott's text reads “I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship” (contractions), not the widely shared “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” Wikiquote explicitly labels this a “slightly misquoted” variant, per Wikiquote ↗.

Amy March, not Jo March

Despite Jo being the novel's most quoted character, this particular line belongs to Amy, addressing her family after her marriage to Laurie, per the chapter text at Wikisource ↗.

Alcott really wrote this line in Little Women (1869); it's Amy's reassurance to her family about married life, and the version usually shared online swaps her contractions for the fuller “I am,” per Wikisource ↗.

Context

Amy's answer to an uncertain future

By the novel's end, Amy March — once the family's most self-absorbed sister — has married her childhood friend Laurie and settled into adult married life. When her family teases the newlyweds about what comes next, Amy answers with quiet confidence: she doesn't know how long the good weather will last, but she isn't afraid of storms, because she is learning to sail her own ship.

The line has since been lifted out of that domestic scene and circulated as a stand-alone motivational maxim, usually without noting that it belongs to Amy rather than to Alcott speaking in her own voice, or to Jo, the character most associated with grit in the novel.

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Resilience Courage Growth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Little Women, Part Second, Chapter 44en.wikisource.org

Full text of the chapter containing Amy's exact line, in original context
Louisa May Alcott quotesen.wikiquote.org

Sourced Little Women quotations, including this passage and a note on its common misquotation
Little Womenen.wikipedia.org

Publication history of the novel (Part One 1868, Part Two 1869, Roberts Brothers)
Louisa May Alcotten.wikipedia.org

Biography, birth/death dates, and literary significance

The author

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott

1832–1888 · American novelist, author of Little Women

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist raised among New England transcendentalists, best known for the semi-autobiographical Little Women (1868–69) and its sequels. Beyond her celebrated domestic fiction she also wrote sensation thrillers under a pseudonym and was an active abolitionist and suffragist.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, Part Second (“Good Wives”). Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1869. Ch. 44, “My Lord and Lady.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Part Second, “Good Wives,” Roberts Brothers, 1869.

APA (7th ed.)

Alcott, L. M. (1869). Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Roberts Brothers.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-am-not-afraid-of-storms-for-i-am-learning-how-to-sail-my

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