Quotes from Stephen W. Hines

It does not so matter what happens. It is what one does when it happens that really counts. -Laura Ingalls Wilder: Get the Habit of Being Ready , October 20, 1917

Nothing is ever gained by allowing anger to have sway. When under its influence we lose the ability to think clearly and the forceful power that is in calmness. -Laura Ingalls Wilder: As A Farm Woman Thinks (3) (November 15, 1921).

How easy and delightful life might be if we could do this, if when we had attained the position we wished we might rest on our oars and watch the ripples on the stream of life.

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 of the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee. Laura Ingalls Wilder; , February 20, 1916

Anger is a destroying force. What all the world needs is its opposite-- an uplifting power. -Laura Ingalls Wilder, As A Farm Woman Thinks (3) (November 1,1921).

It seems such a pity that we can learn to value what we have only thru the loss of it. Truly 'we will never miss the water till the well runs dry.' -Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Farm Home (11) , October 20, 1919

We are told that "There is no great loss without some small gain.' Even so I think that there is no great gain without a little loss. Laura Ingalls Wilder, So We Moved the Spring

I think there are always compensations. The trouble is we do not recognize them. We usually are so busily longing for things we can't have that we overlook what we have in their place, that is even more worth while. Sometimes we realize our happiness only by comparison after we have lost it. It really appears to be true that, To appreciate Heaven well A man must have some 15 minutes of Hell. Laura Ingalls Wilder; The Farm Home (13) , November 20, 1919

I cannot stand still in my work. If I do not keep studying and going ahead, I slip back. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Are You Going Ahead? Feb. 20, 1917

It is as easy to criticize other countries than ours as it is to find fault with other people than ourselves and both usually come from a lack of understanding. If we are looking for defects we are nearly certain to find them, while if we observe others with the purpose of learning and adapting for ourselves what is good in their lives and ways we gain much. -Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Farm Home; July 20, 1920 /

Keep up with the march of progress for the time is coming when the cities will be the workshops of the world and abandoned to the workers, while the real cultured, social and intellectual life will be in the city. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Favors The Small Farm Home , Feb. 18, 1911