Laura Ingalls Wilder
The incurable optimism of the farmer who throws his seed on the ground every spring, betting it and his time against the elements, seemed inextricably to blend with the creed of her pioneer forefathers that "it is better farther on"-- only instead of farther on in space, it was farther on in time, over the horizon of the years ahead instead of the far horizon of the west.Collection: Spring
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.Collection: Passion
[On dishonesty:] If there were a cry of 'stop thief!' we would all stand still.Collection: Thieves
There is no comfort anywhere for anyone who dreads to go home.Collection: Home
Ma sighed gently and said, "A whole year gone, Charles." But Pa answered, cheerfully: "What's a year amount to? We have all the time there is.Collection: Years
I understood....that in my own life I represented a whole period of American history.Collection: American History
All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings. Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake, wings beating high in the blue air far above it . . . bearing them all away to the green fields in the South.Collection: Autumn
These happy golden years are passing by, these happy golden years.Collection: Years
Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small, but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.Collection: Strong
Money hasn't any value of its own; it represents the stored up energy of men and women and is really just someone's promise to pay a certain amount of that energy.Collection: Money
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.Collection: Sleep
Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. -Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (1867-1957)Collection: Light
People used to have time to live and enjoy themselves, but there is no time anymore for anything but work, work, work.Collection: People
If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light," Ma considered. "We didn't lack for light when I was a girl before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of." "That's so," said Pa. "These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have, but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.Collection: Girl
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.Collection: Home
We heap up around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles.Collection: Crow
She thought to herself, "This is now." She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.Collection: Long
Many a good beginning makes a bad ending.Collection: Failure
We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention.Collection: Sadness
Vices are simply overworked virtues.Collection: Vices
There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Hunger
We must get rid of the habit of classing all women together politically and thinking of the 'woman's vote' as one and indivisible.Collection: Thinking
Never bet your money on another man's game.Collection: Men
In order to thoroughly enjoy anything, one must feel the absence of it at times.Collection: Order
It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation.Collection: Thinking
The stream of passing years is like a river with people being carried along in the current. Some are swept along, protesting, fighting all the way, trying to swim back up the stream, longing for the shores that they have passed, clutching at anything to retard their progress, frightened by the onward rush of the strong current and in danger of being overwhelmed by the waters. Others go with the current freely, trusting themselves to the buoyancy of the water.Collection: Strong
There's no great loss without some small gain.Collection: Loss
These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves -- they're good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.Collection: Railroads
You venture into the unknown land because that is where your heart will take you. In the end, it is not what you want to do, it is something you have to do.Collection: Change
This earthly life is a battle,' said Ma. 'If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and more thankful for your pleasures.Collection: Mind
The object of all education is to make folks fit to live.Collection: Education
All I have told is true, but it is not the whole truth.Collection: Truth
The sweetness of life lies in usefulness, like honey deep in the heart of a clover bloom.Collection: Lying
The world seems a lonesome place when mother has passed away and only memories of her are left.Collection: Mother
Did you ever think how a bit of land shows the character of the owner?Collection: Character
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.Collection: Cheerful
That which is the wonder of one age is the commonplace of the next.Collection: Age
Let your joy scream across the pain.Collection: Pain
The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them.Collection: Stupid
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.Collection: Christmas
I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking.Collection: Believe
Things and persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. How unconsciously we judge others by the light that is within ourselves, condemning or approving them by our own conception of right and wrong, honor and dishonor! We show by our judgment just what the light within us is.Collection: Light
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.Collection: Thinking
Life begins at eighty.Collection: Age
We are the heirs of the ages; but the estate is entailed, as large estates frequently are, so that while we inherit the earth, the great round world which is God's footstool, we have only the use of it while we live and must pass it on to those come after us. We hold the property in trust and have no right to injure it or to lessen its value. To do so is dishonest, stealing from our heirs their inheritance.Collection: Future
The life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime. All the wild seeds of weed and thistle, the sprouts of vine and bush and tree, are trying to take the fields. Farmers must fight them with harrow and plow and hoe; they must plant the good seeds quickly.Collection: Weed