Laura Ingalls Wilder Quotes

[On dishonesty:] If there were a cry of 'stop thief!' we would all stand still.

We must get rid of the habit of classing all women together politically and thinking of the 'woman's vote' as one and indivisible.

Never bet your money on another man's game.

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.

As you read my stories of long ago I hope you will remember that things truly worthwhile and that will give you happiness are the same now as they were then. It is not the things you have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good.

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

Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life, we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do.

Home is the nicest word there is.

Oh no, I never do much ironing, except the outside clothes. We must not iron out the fresh air and sunshine, you know. It is much more healthful not to, the doctors say.” Seriously, there is something very refreshing about sheets and pillow slips just fresh from the line, after being washed and dried in the sun and air. Just try them that way and see if your sleep is not sweeter.

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.

The days have never been long enough to do the things I would like to do. Every year has held more of interest than the year before.

There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.

And just as a little thread of gold, running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women's work at home, while only the doing of little things, like the golden gleam of sunlight runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization.

The world seems a lonesome place when mother has passed away and only memories of her are left.

Many a good beginning makes a bad ending.

Mary and Carrie and baby Grace and Ma had all had scarlet fever. The Nelsons across the creek had had it too, so there had been no one to help Pa and Laura.

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

They drove a long way through the snowy woods, till they came to the town of Pepin. Mary and Laura had seen it once before, but it looked different now.

Remember well, and bear in mind, a constant friend is hard to find.

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.

But in the east the sky was pale and through the gray woods came lanterns with wagons and horses, bringing Grandpa and Grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins.

Let's be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger.

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

Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I'll remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all.

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.

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

We'd never get anything fixed to suit us if we waited for things to suit us before we started.

In these days when we feed those who are not hungry, we are stealing from those who are starving, even though the food is our own.

Let your joy scream across the pain.