Willa Cather

"A man is not master of his moods; they master him."

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

"We always think about when we shall be happy; but we seldom think about when we shall die."

"The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor."

"Where there is great love, there are always wishes."

"That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great."

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

"I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."

"Art and religion first; then philosophy; lastly science. That is the order of the great subjects of life, that is their order of importance."

"There are some things about which I would spend any money, but I would never buy a new book when I could read an old one."

"One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will totally change the character of one's immediate sequel."

"The sunlight of truth dispels all shadows."

"Winter comes to us all, and with it comes responsibility."

"To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent."

"The higher processes are all processes of simplification."

"Only the stupid and the phlegmatic should congratulate themselves on their irreproachability."

"Courage, after all, is not being unafraid; it is being afraid and yet proceeding onward."

"The kingdom of art is the only kingdom that cannot be conquered."

"A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves."

"The best thing about growing old is that all those things you couldn't have when you were young, you no longer want."

"Success is never so interesting as struggle."

"We come and go, but the land is always here."

"One must go through periods of bitterness, of doubt, even of despair, to reach any understanding of one's self."

"It is the mood that saves, not the quantity of experience."

"Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss."

"The test of one's decency is how this person behaves in a moment of change."

"Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there—that, it seems to me, is created."

"To be an artist, one must learn to see with understanding."

"Drink and dance and laugh and lie; love the reeling midnight through."

"The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own."