- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] I like to think back on my boyhood because, though the times we lived in were hard, the life we lived was good. We were never hungry for food was plentiful, we took it from the land; but still, there was a lack of material things and I remember with wonderment the way my parents wove a magic around us that kept us from ever feeling poor.
- John Walton, Sr.: [after Olivia complains that supper smells awful] It's not like your Momma to get sick over the smell of food.
- 'Grandma' Esther Walton: It's happened twice before.
- 'Grandpa' Zebulon Walton: When was that?
- 'Grandma' Esther Walton: When she was carrying Jim Bob and when she was carrying Elizabeth!
- 'Grandpa' Zebulon Walton: Child, there are mysteries in this life that none of us can understand as yet. And you can't take the liberty of coming up with answers just for the purpose of making yourself feel better. Livvy, blaming yourself is the easy way out. It's a much harder way to think that what happened, happened for the best. That's the more truthful way. It just teaches us that when we do get knocked down by a bolt of lightning out of the blue, it gives us dignity to get up and walk on.