What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself—life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.

About Willa Cather

Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One...

More quotations from Willa Cather

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

—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

The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.

—Willa Cather

Personal hatred and family affection are not incompatible; they often flourish and grow strong together.

—Willa Cather

He acted too often without counting the cost, from some dazzling conception—one could not say from impulse, for impulses are from the heart. He liked to reorganize and change things for the sake of change, to make a fine gesture. He destroyed the old before he had clearly thought out the new.

—Willa Cather

History

20 Dec 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself — life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.