Quotes from Little House in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder ·  198 pages

Rating: (192.3K votes)


“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.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, “What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?”

“They are the days of a long time ago, Laura,” Pa said. “Go to sleep, now.”

But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods. She looked at Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth, the firelight gleaming on his brown hair and beard and glistening on the honey-brown fiddle. She looked at Ma, gently rocking and knitting.

She thought to herself, “This is now.”

She was glad that the cosy 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.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods



“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


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


“But it had been a wonderful day, the most wonderful day in her whole life. She thought about the beautiful lake, and the town she had seen, and the big store full of so many things. She held the pebbles carefully in her lap, and her candy heart wrapped carefully in her handkerchief until she got home and could put it away to keep always. It was too pretty to eat.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods



“Where's my little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up?”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“A big boy nine years old is old enough to remember to mind,’ he said. ‘There’s a good reason for what I tell you to do,’ he said, ‘and if you’ll do as you’re told, no harm will come to you.’” “Yes,”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“She thought to herself, “This is now.” She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the fire-light and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“This is now.” She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the fire-light and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods



“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, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat. The”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“He would butcher it as soon as the weather was cold enough to keep the pork frozen. Once”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves. Then”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


“Little rabbits, you know, always have games together before they go to bed.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods



“but I’d hate to want ’em and not have ’em.” “Oh what is it? What is it?” Laura asked, jumping up”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, quote from Little House in the Big Woods


About the author

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Born place: in near Pepin, Wisconsin, The United States
Born date February 7, 1867
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The measure of a man, she said finally, is not the words that mark his end, but everything he’s done since his beginning.”
― T.J. Klune, quote from Into This River I Drown


“En los corazones de los hombres más temerarios hay cuerdas que no se dejan tocar sin emoción. Hasta en los más depravados, en quienes la vida y la muerte son siempre motivo de juego, hay cosas con las que no se puede bromear.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Masque of the Red Death


“worried about you, I’d never have asked Mia about it. Rather saw my tongue in half with a rusty kitchen knife. But I did ask her, and she’s not clear on it.’ ‘Honey, what you said before about knowing me, that’s true. Now what do you think my reaction is to what you just said?’ She hissed out a breath. ‘If he comes after her, he’ll have to get through you.’ ‘Close enough. Shouldn’t you be out on patrol, or would you rather take the paperwork portion of our day?’ ‘I’d rather eat lice.’ She put on her cap, yanked the tail of her hair through the back. ‘Look, I’m glad you found someone who suits you. I’m even more glad I like her. But there’s more to Nell Channing than a nice woman with a murky past who can bake like a team of angels.’ ‘You mean she’s a witch,’ he said easily. ‘Yeah, I figured that out. I’ve got no particular problem with it.’ So saying, he went back to the keyboard, chuckling to himself when Ripley slammed the door behind her.   ‘The goddess doesn’t require sacrifice,’ Mia said. ‘She’s a mother. Like a mother, she requires respect, love, discipline, and wants happiness for her children.’ The evening was cool. Mia could already scent the end of summer. Soon her woods would change from green and lush to wild color. She’d already seen the woolly caterpillars, watched the busy squirrel hoarding”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Dance Upon the Air


“Don't play semantic games with the prospect. Advertising is not a debate. It's a seduction.”
― Al Ries, quote from Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace


“this was the man who would not submit to her need for probing intimacy, overintimacy, the urge to ask, examine, delve, draw things out, trade secrets, tell everything. it was a need that had the body in it, hands, feet, genitals, scummy odors, clotted dirt, even if it was all talk or sleepy murmur. she wanted to absorb everything, childlike, the dust of stray sensation, whatever she could breathe in from other people's pores. she used to think she was other people. other people have truer lives.”
― Don DeLillo, quote from Falling Man


Interesting books

Wolfsong
(5.9K)
Wolfsong
by T.J. Klune
10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less)
(1.5K)
10 Steps to Earning...
by Thomas Frank
The Grift of the Magi
(1.4K)
The Grift of the Mag...
by Ally Carter
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry
(1.7K)
Plainwater: Essays a...
by Anne Carson
Oath of Swords
(6K)
Oath of Swords
by David Weber
The Other Brother
(2.4K)
The Other Brother
by Meghan Quinn

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.