Willa Cather

"Even true love cannot be measured by the length of time people have been together."

"A man may have ability and training and technique, but without integrity, nothing will come of them."

"The important thing is the fact of being alive."

"One cannot get into the human heart without understanding failure."

"If one were searching for contradictions, one might note that most people need their enemies."

"The sun shines into the valley and makes all things golden."

"There is often more going on in a quiet mind than in a hectoring one."

"The happiest moments of life are pleasant recollections of past deeds."

"Every man has his own wit, and every man should know it and use it."

"To lose oneself in admiration and be lost in the wonder of a thing of beauty, that is what it is to be alive."

"The power of place in one's life cannot be overstated."

"Science without imagination is merely calculation."

"Human nature is the same everywhere; our needs are basic."

"A year spent in Italy is well employed."

"The test of all knowledge is its value in life."

"One's past is what one is, and there is no point in denying it."

"The very essence of life is adventure; without it, we merely exist."

"Art is not a luxury, but a necessity of human development."

"Neighbourhoods, like persons, have character and destiny."

"The best thing about new friends is that they bring new hope."

"A careless word may kindle mischief I never dreamed of."

"There is often a soulless quality to modern life that the old world did not possess."

"Life is eternal so long as there is someone to remember."

"To abandon oneself utterly to the present moment is to achieve a kind of peace."

"History is not what happened, but what is remembered and recorded."

"The old world breaks down while we are born into the new."

"Talent is a very common thing and ambition is equally common."

"The conditions we create for living often determine the quality of our existence."

"What is any art but an effort to make a shudder of beauty permanent."

"One must develop a capacity for patience in all things."