Laura Ingalls Wilder Quotes

“There’s no great loss without some small gain.”

“What’s a year amount to? We have all the time there is.”

“They were going to the Indian country. Pa said there were too many people in the Big Woods now.”

″‘I never heard a mockingbird sing so early,’ said Ma, and Pa answered, softly, ‘He is telling us good-by.‘”

″... Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. They drove away and left it lonely and empty in the clearing among the big trees, and they never saw that little house again.”

“I tell you Caroline, when we begin getting crops off this rich land of ours, we’ll be living like kings!”

“Mary and Laura clung tight to their rag dolls and did not say anything. The cousins stood around and looked at them. Grandma and all the aunts hugged and kissed them and hugged and kissed them again, saying good-by.”

“They didn’t say anything. Perhaps Mary felt sweet and good inside, but Laura didn’t. When she looked at Mary she wanted to slap her. So she dared not look at Mary again.”

“She liked the enormous sky and the winds, and the land that you couldn’t see to the end of. Everything was so free and big and splendid.”

“There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. And on the whole enormous prairie there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there.”

″... where a light can’t live, I know I can’t. And I like to be safe when I can be. But all’s well that ends well.”

“He ran his hand through his hair so that it stood up even more wildly, and Ma burst out laughing. Then he hugged her, quilts and all.”

″... Pa caught Laura up in his safe, big hug. ‘We’re across the Mississippi!‘, he said, hugging her joyously. ‘How do you like that, little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up?‘”

“Oh, Mr. Edwards, thank you, thank you for going all the way to Independence to find Santa Claus for us.”

″... she knew that nothing could hurt her while Pa and Jack were there.”

“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.”

“A nightmare is not so terrible as that night was. A nightmare is only a dream, and when it is worst you wake up. But this was real and Laura could not wake up. She could not get away from it.”

“The next thing she knew she was trying to hug a jumping, panting, wriggling Jack, who lapped her face and hands with his warm wet tongue.”

“When the war-cry was over, Laura knew it had not got her yet. She was still in the dark house and she was pressed close against Ma. Ma was trembling all over.”

“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. And that was the last of the little house.”

“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.”

“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. And that was the last of the little house.”

″‘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.‘”

“She thought to herself, ‘This is now.’ 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.”

“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.”

“The snug log house looked just as it always had. It did not seem to know they were going away.”

“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.”

“Laura had only a corncob doll 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.”

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

“Laura and Mary were allowed to take Ma’s thimble and make pretty patterns of circles in the frost on the glass. But they never spoiled the pictures that Jack Frost had made in the night.”

“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.”

“Sometimes, far away in the night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer, and howled again. It was a scary sound. Laura knew that wolves would eat little girls.”

“The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables.”

″‘Wash on Monday. Iron on Tuesday. Mend on Wednesday. Churn on Thursday. Clean on Friday. Bake on Saturday. Rest on Sunday.’ Laura liked the churning and the baking days best of all the week”

“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.”

“So far as the little girl could see, there was only the one little house where she lived with her father and mother, her sister Mary and baby Carrie.”

“Ma was trembling, and she began to laugh a little. ‘To think,’ she said, ‘I’ve slapped a bear!‘”

″‘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.”