In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible¹ summer.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

Anne Bradstreet (1612 - 1672), 'Meditations² Divine and Moral,' 1655

Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating³ animal underneath⁴, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Every winter, When the great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into a vale of grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds⁵ herself in sables⁶, Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay-- Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.

Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875), Saint's Tragedy (act III, sc. 1)

In the bleak⁷ midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.

Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), A Christmas Carol

There's a certain Slant⁸ of light, Winter Afternoons-- That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes--

Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), No. 258

Every mile is two in winter.

George Herbert (1593 - 1633), Jacula Prudentum

One kind word can warm three winter months.

Japanese proverb

The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.

John Burroughs (1837 - 1921), The Snow-Walkers

When you live in Texas, every single time you see snow it’s magical.

Pamela Ribon, Why Girls Are Weird⁹, 2003

When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds.

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.

Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen¹⁰.

Willa Cather (1873 - 1947), My Antonia

And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms.

William Bradford (1590 - 1657), Of Plymouth Plantation¹¹

O Winter! ruler of the inverted¹² year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments¹³, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd Retirement¹⁴, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.

William Cowper (1731 - 1800), Task (bk. IV, l. 120)

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Thou art not so unkind,

As man's ingratitude¹⁵.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this son of York,

And all the clouds that loured upon our house

In the deep bosom¹⁶ of the ocean buried.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Richard III, Act I, sc. I

Under the greenwood tree who loves to lie with me ... Here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), As You Like It, Act II, sc. 5

Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Sonnet LVI