Willa Cather

"One can trust a man who has failed."

"If we never had any fear, we could never be brave."

"Every individual has a lode of coal in his heart, and a diamond somewhere in his soul."

"Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods."

"The person who makes no mistakes does not try new things."

"A man belongs to his native land in a way he belongs to his mother."

"The great faiths of the world are really the same, only expressed in different languages."

"Education should be the process of teaching a child to care."

"We all have our limitations, and the sooner we accept them, the better."

"Ideals are like the stars; we never reach them but we chart ourselves by them."

"The life of each individual is an act of apostleship."

"Youth is the first act in the play of life."

"A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark."

"The soil of every man's heart is stonier than the Rocky Mountains."

"Knowledge kills action."

"The condition every art requires is complete mastery of technique."

"One's life is worth living if one cultivates the spirit which yearns for the best."

"When all is said and done, nothing really matters but love and friendship."

"There is something about accomplishment, about the knowing that you have done your duty faithfully, that satisfied the deepest craving of the human heart."

"The backward glance often reveals a blessing disguised as a curse."

"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person."

"There was something individual in the very gait of a man, something that told you not his history, perhaps, but his nature."

"Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin."

"The greatest thing the old masters have to teach us is simplicity."

"One can never be too careful in the choice of one's final resting place."

"An artist must have something to say, for if he has nothing at all to say, he cannot say it."

"The mind abhors annihilation of itself more than the body abhors death."

"Desire under the elms may be a splendid thing in the fields, but in town it becomes merely furtive and shoddy."

"The world is always breaking down, and in order to make progress, we must first destroy."

"Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen."