Far worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes, and Mary was blind.

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

When Pa was at home the gun always lay across those two wooden hooks above the door. ... The gun was always loaded, and always above the door so that Pa could get it quickly and easily, any time he needed a gun.

The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them.

Life begins at eighty.

In order to thoroughly enjoy anything, one must feel the absence of it at times.

A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and little girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.