Well, we’re into it now. We’re in the trenches of winter with the coldest months of January and February directly ahead. Winter here in Edinburgh is a bitter affair as we lie close to the North Sea and all that brings with it from the Arctic north - wind, rain, ice, snow - sometimes all in one day.
Researching quotes, it seems that, in a literary sense, we would better cope with this harshest of seasons if we remember that Spring is just around the corner. Easier said than done when walking in freezing horizontal rain - at those times, it seems wet days will never end. But of course they will and signs of crocuses and pale pink blossom on trees will serve to warm us up no end.
Until then, a selection of beautiful wintery quotes for you to ponder.
1. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
3. “Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”
Victor Hugo
4. “Wisdom comes with winters.”
Oscar Wilde
6. “That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.”
Ali Smith
8. “Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude.”
William Shakespeare
9. “Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.”
Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room
10. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
John Steinbeck
