491 Quotes by Willa Cather

The mind, too, has a kind of blood; in common speech we call it hope.

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.

On the farm the weather was the great fact, and men’s affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice.

She was quick to anger, quick to laughter, and jolly from the depths of her soul.

It was no wonder that her sons stood tall and straight. She was a rich mine of life, like the foundation of early races.

It was a crisp autumn evening, just cold enough to make one glad to quit playing tag in the yard, and retreat into the kitchen.

The great key of success is to work when you are not suited, I fancy.

One may have staunch friends in one’s own family, but one seldom has admirers.

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world’s end somewhere, and hold fast to the days...