Success is never so interesting as struggle Willa Cather More Quotes by Willa Cather More Quotes From Willa Cather Life was so short that it meant nothing at all unless it were continually reinforced by something that endured; unless the shadows of individual existence came and went against a background that held together. Willa Cather individual shadow together Where there is great love there are always miracles. Willa Cather valentines-day sympathy love It's all very well to tell us to forgive our enemies; our enemies can never hurt us very much. But oh, what about forgiving our friends? Willa Cather friends hurt inspiring I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I begin just where I left off. Willa Cather tree way thinking I suppose there were moonless nights and dark ones with but a silver shaving and pale stars in the sky, but I remember them all as flooded with the rich indolence of a full moon. Willa Cather stars moon dark Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen. Willa Cather winter country lying All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens. Willa Cather captivity voice sports What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose. Willa Cather running sweet art Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer. Willa Cather artistic born artist When the eyes of the flesh are shut, the eyes of the spirit are open. Willa Cather eye flesh spirit The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire. Willa Cather desire people world On the farm the weather was the great fact, and men's affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice. Willa Cather ice weather men Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them. Willa Cather kind writing book I tell you there is such a thing as creative hate. Willa Cather hate hatred creative Imagination, which is a quality writers must have, does not mean the ability to weave pretty stories out of nothing. In the right sense, imagination is a response to what is going on — a sensitiveness to which outside things appeal. It is a composition of sympathy and observation. Willa Cather quality imagination mean When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them, as if their reason had left them. Willa Cather philanthropy kindness people Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement. Willa Cather achievement inspirational life Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have given man the only happiness he has ever had. Willa Cather ends men art The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it. Willa Cather reflection spring art Thirty or forty years ago, in one those grey towns along the Burlington railroad which are so much greyer to-day than they were then, there was a house well know from Omaha to Denver for its hospitality and for a certain charm of atmosphere. Willa Cather house book years
