Quotes

“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.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it's pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Everything from the little house was in the wagon, except the beds and tables and chairs. They did not need to take these, because Pa could always make new ones.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The path that went by the little house had become a road. Almost every day Laura and Mary stopped their playing and stared in surprise at a wagon slowly creaking by on that road.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“In the long winter evenings he talked to Ma about the Western country. In the West the land was level, and there were no trees. The grass grew thick and high.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Far worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary's eyes, and Mary was blind.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“So Pa sold the little house. He sold the cow and calf. He made hickory bows and fastened them upright to the wagon box. Ma helped him stretch white canvas over them.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“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.” Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” Samuel Johnson

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” Samuel Johnson

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Samuel Johnson

“Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.” Samuel Johnson

“We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.” Samuel Johnson

“If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.” Samuel Johnson

“By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” Samuel Johnson

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” Samuel Johnson

“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.” Samuel Johnson

“Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.” Samuel Johnson

“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.” Samuel Johnson

“The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.” Samuel Johnson

“Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.” Samuel Johnson

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” Samuel Johnson

“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” Samuel Johnson

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” Samuel Johnson

“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.” Samuel Johnson

“The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.” Samuel Johnson

“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.” Samuel Johnson

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.” Samuel Johnson