Laura Ingalls Wilder's Quotes & Sayings

The candle-light was dim, as though the darkness were trying to put it out. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves. Then — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I dare you to ask him," Frank said. The other boys were listening. Almanzo put his hands in his pockets and said: "I'd just as lief ask him if I wanted to." "Yah, you're scared!" Frank jeered. "Double dare! Double dare! — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mary was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie. Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan. It wasn't Susan's fault that she was only a corncob.

Sometimes Mary let Laura hold Nettie, but she only did it when Susan couldn't see. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The fact that Nellie wasn't any one person but rather a composite of three of the real Laura's antagonists' worst traits makes her even more terrifying, some kind of blond Frankenstein assembled from assorted bitch parts. — Wendy McClure

She could not think what it would be to teach school twelve miles away from home, along among strangers. The less she thought of it the better, for she must go, and she must meet whatever happened as it came.
"Now Mary can have everting she needs, and she can come home this next summer," she said. "Oh, Pa, do you think I - I can teach school?"
"I do, Laura," said Pa. "I am sure of it. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

You could buy a suckling pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it, and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it's your money. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Home is the nicest word there is. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ma sighed gently and said, "A whole year gone, Charles." But Pa answered, cheerfully: "What's a year amount to? We have all the time there is. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Let's be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

must be seen and not heard. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

This earthly life is a battle,' said Ma. 'If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and more thankful for your pleasures. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you're a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come. You'll be free and independent, son, on a farm. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The object of all education is to make folks fit to live. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'. — Tracy Chevalier

Never bet your money on another man's game. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

You can fill a glass full to the brim with milk, and fill another glass of the same size brim full of popcorn, and then you can put all the popcorn kernel by kernel into the milk, and the milk will not run over. You cannot do this with bread. Popcorn and milk are the only two things that will go into the same place. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

It's work, son," Father said. "That's what money is; it's hard work. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is no comfort anywhere for anyone who dreads to go home. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Did you ever think how a bit of land shows the character of the owner? — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Life was not intended to be simply a round of work, no matter how interesting and important that work may be. A moment's pause to watch the glory of a sunrise or a sunset is soul-satisfying, while a bird's song will set the steps to music all day long. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

She heard pa shouting,Jiminy crickets!It's raining fish-hooks and hammer handles! — Laura Ingalls Wilder

God hates a coward."
I don't actually believe this is true. But it's something to aim for. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Suffering passes, while love is eternal. That's a gift that you have received from God. Don't waste it. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Vices are simply overworked virtues, anyway. Economy and frugality are to be commended but follow them on in an increasing ratio and what do we find at the other end? A miser! If we overdo the using of spare moments we may find an invalid at the end, while perhaps if we allowed ourselves more idle time we would conserve our nervous strength and health to more than the value the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee.
I once knew a woman, not very strong, who to the wonder of her friends went through a time of extraordinary hard work without any ill effects.
I asked her for her secret and she told me that she was able to keep her health, under the strain, because she took 20 minutes, of each day in which to absolutely relax both mind and body. She did not even "set and think." She lay at full length, every muscle and nerve relaxed and her mind as quiet as her body. This always relieved the strain and renewed her strength. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Popcorn is American. Nobody but the Indians ever had popcorn, till after the Pilgrim Fathers came to America. On — Laura Ingalls Wilder

They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

In these days when we feed those who are not hungry, we are stealing from those who are starving, even though the food is our own. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Many a good beginning makes a bad ending. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

You venture into the unknown land because that is where your heart will take you. In the end, it is not what you want to do, it is something you have to do. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series is a national treasure, beloved by generations. But what I love most is the peek it provides into the planting, harvesting, hunting, and preparing of the foods that America's settler families ate in the late 1800s. — Isabel Gillies

Wild animals would not stay in a country where there were so many people. Pa did not like to stay, either. He liked a country where the wild animals lived without being afraid. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

We must get rid of the habit of classing all women together politically and thinking of the 'woman's vote' as one and indivisible. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mary and Carrie and baby Grace and Ma had all had scarlet fever. The Nelsons across the creek had had it too, so there had been no one to help Pa and Laura. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

All day the storm lasted. The windows were white and the wind never stopped howling and screaming. It was pleasant in the warm house. Laura and Mary did their lessons, then Pa played the fiddle while Ma rocked and knitted, and bean soup simmered on the stove.
All night the storm lasted, and all the next day. Fire-light danced out of the stove's draught, and Pa told stories and played the fiddle. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Politicians, they take pleasure a-prying into a man's affairs and I aimed to please 'em. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat. In our mad rush for progress and modern improvements let's be sure we take along with us all the old-fashioned things worth while. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

So they all went away from the little log house. The shutters were over the windows, so the little house could not see them go. It stayed there inside the log fence, behind the two big oak trees that in the summertime had made green roofs for Mary and Laura to play under. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat. The — Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the long winter evenings he talked to Ma about the Western country. In the West the land was level, and there were no trees. The grass grew thick and high. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

We are the heirs of the ages; but the estate is entailed, as large estates frequently are, so that while we inherit the earth, the great round world which is God's footstool, we have only the use of it while we live and must pass it on to those come after us. We hold the property in trust and have no right to injure it or to lessen its value. To do so is dishonest, stealing from our heirs their inheritance. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

There was no time to lose, no time to waste in rest or play. The life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

When Pa was at home the gun always lay across those two wooden hooks above the door ... The gun was always loaded, and always above the door so that Pa could get it quickly and easily, any time he needed a gun. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

There's no great loss without some small gain. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I declare to goodness, I don't know but sometimes I believe in women's rights. If women were voting and making laws, I believe they'd have better sense. (Mrs. McKee to Laura, regarding homesteading laws) — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Well, Caroline, it's pleasant to be with a crowd of people all trying to do the right thing, same as we are. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Our inability to see things that are right before our eyes, until they are pointed out to us, would be amusing if it were not at times so serious. We are coming, I think, to depend too much on being told and shown and taught, instead of using our own eyes and brains and inventive faculties, which are likely to be just as good as any other person's. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Then Father said: If the teacher has to thrash you again, Royal, I'll give you a thrashing you'll remember. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

When I was a kid, I lived in this small town way out in the country. We had three TV channels and one radio station. I couldn't even get my hands on good comic books. My aunt, who is a librarian, gave me Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie," and Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia." They were such incredible treasures to have in my somewhat mundane country life. — Nick Offerman

That machine's a great invention!" he said. "Other folks can stick to old-fashioned ways if they want to, but I'm all for progress. It's a great age we're living in. As long as I raise wheat, I'm going to have a machine come and thresh it, if there's one anywhere in the neighborhood. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Far worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes, and Mary was blind. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Snow as fine and grainy as sugar covered the windows in and sifted off to the floor and did not melt. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, "What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?"
"They are the days of a long time ago, Laura," Pa said. "Go to sleep, now."
But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa's fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods, ...
She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

And just as a little thread of gold, running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women's work at home, while only the doing of little things, like the golden gleam of sunlight runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Where's my little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up? — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Golden years are passing by, Happy, happy golden years, Passing on the wings of time, These happy golden years. Call them back as they go by, Sweet their memories are, Oh, improve them as they fly, These happy golden years." Laura's — Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it's pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Every war is more or less a woman's war. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura knew then that she was not a little girl any more. Now she was alone; she must take care of herself. When you must do that, then you do it and you are grown up. Laura was not very big, but she was almost thirteen years old, and no one was there to depend on. Pa and Jack had gone, and Ma needed help to take care of Mary and the little girls, and somehow to get them all safely to the west on a train. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness
just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

We go lightheartedly on our way, never thinking that by a careless word or two we may have altered the whole course of human lives, for some person will take our advice and use it. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

As you read my stories of long ago I hope you will remember that things truly worthwhile and that will give you happiness are the same now as they were then. It is not the things you have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Then Pa looked straight at Laura and said, 'You girls keep away from the camp. When you go walking. don't go near where the men are working, and you be sure you're back here before they come in for the night. There's all kinds of rough men working on the grade and using rough language, and the less you see and hear of them the better. Now remember, Laura. And you too, Carrie.' Pa's face was very serious.
'Yes, Pa' Laura promised, and Carrie almost whispered , 'Yes, Pa.' Carrie's eyes were large and frightened. She did not want to hear rough language, whatever rough language might be. Laura would have liked to hear some, just once, but of course she must obey Pa. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes 'way out beyond Kansas, and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, and down to the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don't you ever forget that. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura said faintly, 'I thought God takes care of us.'

'He does,' Pa said, 'so far as we do what's right. And He gives us a conscience and brains to know what's right. But He leaves it to us to do as we please. That's the difference between us and everything else in creation. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. -Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (1867-1957) — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I loved Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote 'The Little Princess' and 'The Secret Garden.' And I loved the 'Little House on the Prairie' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. — Mary Pope Osborne

We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Money hasn't any value of its own; it represents the stored up energy of men and women and is really just someone's promise to pay a certain amount of that energy. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is a spirit in every home, a sort of composite spirit composed of the thoughts and feelings of the members of the family as a composite photograph is formed of the features of different individuals. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Every job is good if you do your best and work hard. A man who works hard stinks only to the ones that have nothing to do but smell. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

All the land our forefathers had was a little strip of country, here between the mountains and the ocean. All the way from here west was Indian country, and Spanish and French and English country. It was farmers that took all that country and made it America." "How?" Almanzo asked. "Well, son, the Spaniards were soldiers, and high-and-mighty gentlemen that only wanted gold. And the French were fur-traders, wanting to make quick money. And England was busy fighting wars. But we were farmers, son; we wanted the land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung on to their farms. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

When I was only eleven years old, I decided to become a writer. I told this ambition in a letter to Laura Ingalls Wilder; the die was cast. How could I go back on my word? — Sonia Levitin

Receiving both the Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award suggests I have succeeded, at least in terms of my own goals, in my intent to make art that moves children. — Jerry Pinkney

We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Bean felt a rush of sweet nostalgia for the woman who had introduced us to E. Nesbit and Edward Eager and Laura Ingalls Wilder ... — Eleanor Brown

The stars and stripes were fluttering bright against the rain, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The greatest good to the greatest number will obviously be reached when each individual of the greatest number is doing the greatest good to himself. — Rose Wilder

It was so wonderful to be there, safe at home, sheltered from the winds and the cold. Laura thought that this must be a little like heaven, where the weary are at rest. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go and on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I understood ... that in my own life I represented a whole period of American history. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

He knew you could never teach an animal anything if you struck it, or even shouted at it angrily. He must always be gentle, and quiet, and patient, even when they made mistakes. Star — Laura Ingalls Wilder

If the members of a home are ill-temperered and quarrelsome, how quickly you feel it when you enter the house. You may not know just what is wrong, but you wish to make your visit short. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

friends will stand by me in trouble. They will — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mothers always fuss about the way you eat. You can hardly eat any way that pleases them. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Things and persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. How unconsciously we judge others by the light that is within ourselves, condemning or approving them by our own conception of right and wrong, honor and dishonor! We show by our judgment just what the light within us is. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

I believe it would be much better for everyone if children were given their start in education at home. No one understands a child as well as his mother, and children are so different that they need individual training and study. A teacher with a roomful of pupils cannot do this. At home, too, they are in their mothers care. She can keep them from learning immoral things from other children. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

One day in the woods he met an Indian. They stood in the wet, cold woods and looked at each other, and they could not talk because they did not know each other's words — Laura Ingalls Wilder

No one has ever achieved anything from the smallest to the greatest unless the dream was dreamed first. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

The stream of passing years is like a river with people being carried along in the current. Some are swept along, protesting, fighting all the way, trying to swim back up the stream, longing for the shores that they have passed, clutching at anything to retard their progress, frightened by the onward rush of the strong current and in danger of being overwhelmed by the waters. Others go with the current freely, trusting themselves to the buoyancy of the water ... — Laura Ingalls Wilder

When we focus on people and life instead of material possessions and mere wants, there's not much room for emotional hand-wringing. Instead, there's more space to weigh what we value in our lives and to acknowledge what really counts. Chapter 9 Simplicity Laura Ingalls in The Long Winter — Erin Blakemore