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Willa Cather Quotes

1873–1947 United States

Willa Sibert Cather (7 December 1873 – 24 April 1947) is among the most eminent American authors, known for her depictions of US life in her novels.

United States
20th-century poets
Academics
Authors
Biographers

Also known as: Cather, Willa, Cather, Willa Sibert

Random Willa Cather quote

77 quotes

It does not matter much whom we live with in this world, but it matters a great deal whom we dream of.

We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it — for a little while.

O Pioneers! (1913)

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

O Pioneers! (1913)

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

O Pioneers! (1913)

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

Alexander's Bridge (1912)

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

The Song of the Lark (1915)

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

The Professor's House (1925)

Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have given man the only happiness he has ever had.

The Professor's House (1925)

She remembered home as a place where there were always too many children, a cross man and work piling up around a sick woman.

My Antonia (1918)

The condition every art requires is, not so much freedom from restriction, as freedom from adulteration and from the intrusion of foreign matter.

Willa Cather on Writing (1949)

Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

O Pioneers! (1913)

Ain't it wonderful, Jim, how much people can mean to each other?

My Antonia (1918)

Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact.

Willa Cather on Writing (1949)

Where there is the greatest love, there are always miracles.

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

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

Willa Cather on Writing (1949)

When we look back, the only things we cherish are those which in some way met our original want; the desire which formed in us in early youth, undirected, and of its own accord.

The Song of the Lark (1915)

A work-room should be like an old shoe; no matter how shabby, it's better than a new one.

The Professor's House (1925)

Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you would be missed.

O Pioneers! (1913)

I tell you there is no such thing as creative hate!

The Song of the Lark (1915)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Willa Cather (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.