Karen Grassle > Karen's Quotes

“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.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

“Home is the nicest word there is.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Remember well, and bear in mind, a constant friend is hard to find.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Vices are simply overworked virtues, anyway. Economy and frugality are to be commended but follow them on in an increasing ratio and what do we find at the other end? A miser! If we overdo the using of spare moments we may find an invalid at the end, while perhaps if we allowed ourselves more idle time we would conserve our nervous strength and health to more than the value the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee.

I once knew a woman, not very strong, who to the wonder of her friends went through a time of extraordinary hard work without any ill effects.

I asked her for her secret and she told me that she was able to keep her health, under the strain, because she took 20 minutes, of each day in which to absolutely relax both mind and body. She did not even “set and think.” She lay at full length, every muscle and nerve relaxed and her mind as quiet as her body. This always relieved the strain and renewed her strength.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Town on the Prairie

“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. ”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Never bet your money on another man's game.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

“This is now.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Every war is more or less a woman's war.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Family Collection: Life on the Farm and in the Country, Making a Home; the Ways of the World, a Woman's Role

“The fact is that while there has been a good deal of discussion for and against women in business, farm women have always been business women, and I have never heard a protest.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“I declare to goodness, I don't know but sometimes I believe in women's rights. If women were voting and making laws, I believe they'd have better sense. (Mrs. McKee to Laura, regarding homesteading laws)”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, These Happy Golden Years

“You could buy a suckling pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it, and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it's your money.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“friends will stand by me in trouble. They will”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Before the Prairie Books: The Writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder 1917 - 1918: the War Years

“Maybe everything comes out all right, if you keep on trying. Anyway, you have to keep on trying; nothing will come out right if you don't.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, These Happy Golden Years

“The snug log house looked just as it always had. It did not seem to know they were going away.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

“You know a person cannot live at a high pitch of emotion, the feelings become dulled by a natural, unconscious effort at self-preservation. You”
― William Anderson, The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

“I declare to goodness, I don't know but sometimes I believe in women's rights. If women were voting and making laws, I believe they'd have better sense. (Mrs. McKee to Laura regarding the homestead laws)”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“But the real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong. With”
― William Anderson, The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Success gets to be a habit, like anything else a fellow keeps on doing.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is now I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all. [6/5/2019 -correct authors: Michael Landon and Blanche Hanalis, written for "Little House TV series, "Remember Me, part 1" episode.] this is verified from curators of the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum - Laura Ingalls Wilder did not write this quote.”
― Faith J.

“There's no great loss without some small gain.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

“Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. -Laura Ingalls Wilder, author (1867-1957)”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Laura knew then that she was not a little girl any more. Now she was alone; she must take care of herself. When you must do that, then you do it and you are grown up. Laura was not very big, but she was almost thirteen years old, and no one was there to depend on. Pa and Jack had gone, and Ma needed help to take care of Mary and the little girls, and somehow to get them all safely to the west on a train.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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. And that was the last of the little house.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

“Cattle did not have to be led to water. They came eagerly to the trough and drank while Almanzo pumped, then they hurried back to the warm barns, and each went to its own place. Each cow turned into her own stall and put her head between her own stanchions. They never made a mistake.
Whether this was because they had more sense than horses, or because they had so little sense that they did everything by habit, Father did not know.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

“What is it about water that affects a person? I never see a great river or lake but I think how I would like to see a world made and watch it through all its changes.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Way Home

“Then one day a wolf came to our door.”
― Karen Grassle, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma

“Later I learned that he had taken one look at my 8X10 photo and said “I’m going to fall in love with her.”
― Karen Grassle, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma

“In show business, living on the edge can be scary, but knowing that a phone call can change your life is exhilarating, too.”
― Karen Grassle, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House's Ma