Laura Ingalls Wilder

“There the wild animals wandered and fed as though they were in a pasture that stretched much farther than a man could see, and there were no settlers. Only Indians lived there.”

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

“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.”

“Suffering passes, while love is eternal. That's a gift that you have received from God. Don't waste it.”

“Ma had been very fashionable, before she married Pa, and a dressmaker had made her clothes.”

“Everything from the little house was in the wagon, except the beds and tables and chairs. They did not need to take these, because Pa could always make new ones.”

“There is no comfort anywhere for anyone who dreads to go home.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

“I always have been a busy person, doing my own housework, helping the Man of the Place when help could not be obtained; but I love to work. And it is a pleasure to write. And, oh, I do just love to play!”

“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.”

“So Pa sold the little house. He sold the cow and calf. He made hickory bows and fastened them upright to the wagon box. Ma helped him stretch white canvas over them.”

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

“We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Mr. Wilder says he would rather have me help than any man he ever sawed with. And, believe me, I learned how to take care of hens and to make them lay.”

“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.”