Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas Quotes

Ma!" she cried. "There is a Santa Claus, isn't there?"

"Of course there's a Santa Claus," said Ma.

"The older you are, the more you know about Santa Claus," she said. "You are so big now, you know he can't be just one man, don't you? You know he is everywhere on Christmas Eve. He is in the Big Woods, and in Indian Territory, and far away in York State, and here. He comes down all the chimneys at the same time. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, Ma," said Mary and Laura.

"Well," said Ma. "Then you see--"

"I guess he is like angels," Mary said, slowly. And Laura could see that, just as well as Mary could.

Then Ma told them something else about Santa Claus. He was everywhere, and besides that, he was all the time.

Whenever anyone was unselfish, that was Santa Claus.

Christmas Eve was the time when everybody was unselfish. On that one night, Santa Claus was everywhere, because everybody, all together, stopped being selfish and wanted other people to be happy. And in the morning you saw what that had done.

"If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?" Laura asked, and Ma said, "Yes, Laura. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

Never bet your money on another man's game. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

There's no great loss without some small gain. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is good in everything, if only we look for it. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

must be seen and not heard. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

She had not known before that it takes two to make a smile. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ma had been very fashionable, before she married Pa, and a dressmaker had made her clothes. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

Every war is more or less a woman's war. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

friends will stand by me in trouble. They will ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat. The ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Well, Caroline, it's pleasant to be with a crowd of people all trying to do the right thing, same as we are. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

He would butcher it as soon as the weather was cold enough to keep the pork frozen. Once ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Popcorn is American. Nobody but the Indians ever had popcorn, till after the Pilgrim Fathers came to America. On ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Politicians, they take pleasure a-prying into a man's affairs and I aimed to please 'em. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is no comfort anywhere for anyone who dreads to go home. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Then Father said: If the teacher has to thrash you again, Royal, I'll give you a thrashing you'll remember. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Life begins at eighty. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

It was so wonderful to be there, safe at home, sheltered from the winds and the cold. Laura thought that this must be a little like heaven, where the weary are at rest. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves. Then ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Home is the nicest word there is. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

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

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

It's work, son," Father said. "That's what money is; it's hard work. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

When gloomy clouds across the sky
Cast shadows o'er the land,
Bright rays of hope illumine my path,
For Jesus holds my hand. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

All I have told is true, but it is not the whole truth. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Where a light can't live, I know I can't. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

In an era when letter writing is a diminished art, we have an opportunity to share this historical and literary treasure trove in The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This book is both a reminder of a bygone era of genuine communication and another visit with Laura Ingalls Wilder, pioneer and author. ~ William Anderson

The stars and stripes were fluttering bright against the rain, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Did you ever think how a bit of land shows the character of the owner? ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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 Ingalls Wilder

San Francisco,
September 13, 1915

Don't buy the horse unless you are sure it is gentle. I do not want you hurt while I am gone or any other time for that matter. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

No rich man can walk through the eye of a needle. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Her blue eyes were still beautiful, but they did not know what was before them, and Mary herself could never look through them again to tell Laura what she was thinking without saying a word. ~ 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

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

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

There was no time to lose, no time to waste in rest or play. The life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Almanzo couldn't understand how Father knew that he wasn't looking at the preacher, if Father was looking at the preacher himself. But Father always did know. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

If the members of a home are ill-temperered and quarrelsome, how quickly you feel it when you enter the house. You may not know just what is wrong, but you wish to make your visit short. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Tact does for life just what lubricating oil does for machinery. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention. ~ 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

People used to have time to live and enjoy themselves, but there is no time anymore for anything but work, work, work. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

The wagon went down from the bluffs into the wooded creek bottoms, and high in a treetop a mockingbird began to sing.
"I never heard a mockingbird sing so early," said Ma, and Pa answered, softly, "He is telling us good-by. ~ 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

Then the fire was shining on the hearth, the cold and the dark and the wild beasts were all shut out, and Jack the brindle bulldog and Black Susan the cat lay blinking at the flames in the fireplace. Ma sat in her rocking chair, sewing by the light ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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 have courage when things go wrong. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

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. ~ 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

For winter was coming. The days were shorter, and frost crawled up the window panes at night. Soon the snow would come. Then the log house would be almost buried in snowdrifts, and the lake and the stream would freeze. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

One day in the woods he met an Indian. They stood in the wet, cold woods and looked at each other, and they could not talk because they did not know each other's words ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Golden years are passing by, Happy, happy golden years, Passing on the wings of time, These happy golden years. Call them back as they go by, Sweet their memories are, Oh, improve them as they fly, These happy golden years." Laura's ~ 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

That which is the wonder of one age is the commonplace of the next. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

There is a spirit in every home, a sort of composite spirit composed of the thoughts and feelings of the members of the family as a composite photograph is formed of the features of different individuals. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura said faintly, 'I thought God takes care of us.'

'He does,' Pa said, 'so far as we do what's right. And He gives us a conscience and brains to know what's right. But He leaves it to us to do as we please. That's the difference between us and everything else in creation. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mary was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie. Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan. It wasn't Susan's fault that she was only a corncob.

Sometimes Mary let Laura hold Nettie, but she only did it when Susan couldn't see. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mother said she would always believe that Providence had sent the strange dog to watch over them. Almanzo thought perhaps he stayed because Alice fed him.
"Maybe he was sent to try us," Mother said. "Maybe the Lord was merciful to us because we were merciful to him. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wild animals would not stay in a country where there were so many people. Pa did not like to stay, either. He liked a country where the wild animals lived without being afraid. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

All day the storm lasted. The windows were white and the wind never stopped howling and screaming. It was pleasant in the warm house. Laura and Mary did their lessons, then Pa played the fiddle while Ma rocked and knitted, and bean soup simmered on the stove.
All night the storm lasted, and all the next day. Fire-light danced out of the stove's draught, and Pa told stories and played the fiddle. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you're a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come. You'll be free and independent, son, on a farm. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

That machine's a great invention!" he said. "Other folks can stick to old-fashioned ways if they want to, but I'm all for progress. It's a great age we're living in. As long as I raise wheat, I'm going to have a machine come and thresh it, if there's one anywhere in the neighborhood. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

butter in a golden lump, drowning in the buttermilk. Then Ma took out the lump with a wooden paddle, into a wooden bowl, and she washed it many times in cold water, turning it over and over and working it with the paddle until the water ran clear. After that she salted it. Now ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

These little creatures looked soft as velvet. They had bright round eyes and crinkling noses and wee paws. They popped out of holes in the ground, and stood up to look at Mary and Laura. Their hind legs folded under their haunches, their little paws folded tight to their chests, and they looked exactly like bits of dead wood sticking out of the ground. Only their bright eyes glittered. Mary ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

These happy golden years are passing by, these happy golden years. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Down a long road through the woods a little boy trudged to school, with his big brother Royal and his two sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice. Royal was thirteen years old, Eliza Jane was twelve, and Alice was ten. Almanzo was the youngest of all, and this was his first going-to-school, because he was not quite nine years old. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

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. ~ 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. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

She could not think what it would be to teach school twelve miles away from home, along among strangers. The less she thought of it the better, for she must go, and she must meet whatever happened as it came.
"Now Mary can have everting she needs, and she can come home this next summer," she said. "Oh, Pa, do you think I - I can teach school?"
"I do, Laura," said Pa. "I am sure of it. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

The greatest good to the greatest number will obviously be reached when each individual of the greatest number is doing the greatest good to himself. ~ Rose 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

We crossed the James River and in 20 minutes we reached the top of the bluffs on the other side. We all stopped and looked back at the scene and I wished for an artist's hand or a poet's brain or for even to be able to tell in good plain prose how beautiful it was. If I had been the Indians I wold have scalped more white folks before I ever would have left it. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

When we focus on people and life instead of material possessions and mere wants, there's not much room for emotional hand-wringing. Instead, there's more space to weigh what we value in our lives and to acknowledge what really counts. Chapter 9 Simplicity Laura Ingalls in The Long Winter ~ Erin Blakemore