Farmer Boy Quotes

“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.”

″‘It’s yours,’ said Father. ‘You could buy a sucking 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.‘”

“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.”

“Almanzo did not want to live inside walls and please people he didn’t like, and never have horses and cows and fields. He wanted to be just like Father. But he didn’t want to say so.”

″‘It’s work, son,’ Father said. ‘That’s what money is; it’s hard work.‘”

“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.”

“It was muskets that won the Revolution. And don’t forget it was axes, and plows that made this country.”

“Mothers always fuss about the way you eat. You can hardly eat any way that pleases them.”

“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.”

″‘I will overlook your tardiness this one time. But do not let it happen again.’ Everybody knew the big boys would be tardy again. Mr. Corse could not punish them because they could thrash him, and that was what the meant to do.”