Quotes from Laura Ingalls Wilder

Suffering passes, while love is eternal. That's a gift that you have received from God…

Under the whole sky there was nothing but the white land, the snow blowing, and the wind and the cold. He was not afraid. He knew where the town was and as long as the sun was in the sky or the moon or the stars he could not be lost. But he had a feeling colder than the wind. He felt that he was the only life on the cold earth under the cold sky; he and his horse alone in an enormous coldness.

Success gets to be a habit, like anything else a fellow keeps on doing.

Laura always wondered why bread made of corn meal was called johnny-cake. It wasn't cake. Ma didn't know, unless the Northern soldiers called it johnny-cake because the people in the South, where they fought, ate so much of it. They called the Southern soldiers Johnny Rebs. Maybe, they called the Southern bread, cake, just for fun. Ma had heard some say that it should be called journey-cake. She didn't know. It wouldn't be very good bread to take on a journey.

The road goes up hill and down, and it is rutted and dusty and stony but every turn of the wheels changes our view of the woods and the hills. The sky seems lower here, and it is the softest blue. The distances and the valleys are blue whenever you can see them. It is a drowsy country that makes you feel wide awake and alive but somehow contented.

Kansas City Sunday, August 22, 1915 I'm going to find everyone kind and all the help I need, as usual.

When a man undertakes a job, he has to stick to it till he finishes it. If

San Francisco, September 13, 1915 Don't buy the horse unless you are sure it is gentle. I do not want you hurt while I am gone or any other time for that matter.

Mary was too scared to move. Laura was too scared to stand to still.

It was farmers that took all that land and made it America...It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung onto their land.

The creek would go down. It would be a gentle, pleasant place to play in again. But nobody could make it do that. Nobody could make it do anything. Laura knew now that there were things stronger than anybody. But the creek had not got her. It had not made her scream and it could not make her cry

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.

the old Virginia shore. So carry

Grace sat up, too frightened to make a sound, and even Laura was horrified, for the stool lay in two pieces. Then Pa laughed. "Never mind, Grace," he said. "You only unscrewed it all the way. But," he said sternly, "you stay off this stool, after this.

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!

Beyond them the darkness was like a mist thickening over a flat, white world. Stars twinkled far away around part of its rim. Before him, the black storm climbed rapidly up the sky and in silence destroyed the stars.

But why couldn't the little cat—

The vast prairie was dark and still. Only the wind moved stealthily through the grass, and the large, low stars hung glittering from the great sky.

has been ridden, but better head her onto the plowed ground. It will be harder going for her—so she won't be so frisky—and a soft place for you to light if you fall off." So when Laura was safely in the saddle

Mid pleasures and places though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

How does a panther scream? Laura asked. Like a woman

Almanzo could only look longingly at the eager three-year-olds. He just touched their velvety noses, and then he went quickly away from them, and put on his barn frock over his good school-clothes.

You don't want to hear about the time I was a naughty little boy.

wolves would eat little girls.