Pa did not like a country so old and worn out that the hunting was poor. He wanted to go west. For two years he had wanted to go west and take a homestead, but Ma did not want to leave the settled country.

Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go and on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.

We go lightheartedly on our way, never thinking that by a careless word or two we may have altered the whole course of human lives, for some person will take our advice and use it.

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

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.

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.

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.