Quotes by Willa Cather

Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement. (Willa Cather)

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

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

Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things. (Willa Cather)

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person. (Willa Cather)

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

Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything. (Willa Cather)

Only solitary men know the full joys of frienship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything. (Willa Cather)

Paris is a hard place to leave, even when it rains incessantly and one coughs continually from the dampness. (Willa Cather)

She used to drag her mattress besider her low window and lie awake for a long while, vibrating with excitement, as a machine vibrates from speed. Life rushed in upon her through that window - or so it seemed. In reality, of course, life rushes from within, not from without. There is no work of art so big or so beautiful that is was not once all contained in some youthful body, like this one which lay on the floor in the moonlight, pulsing with ardor and anticipation. (Willa Cather)