Midwinter Quotes

• In the bleak 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

  Nature, Travel, Winter

  'Mid-Winter'

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• It is in midwinter that I sometimes glean from my pines... a curious transfusion of courage.

  Aldo Leopold

  Sometimes, Curious

  Aldo Leopold (2001). “A Sand County Almanac”, p.150, Oxford University Press

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• In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You are aware of the beating of your heart. The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

  Frederick Buechner

  Heart, Names, Extraordinary Moments

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• The stories never said why she was wicked. It was enough to be an old woman, enough to be all alone, enough to look strange because you have no teeth. It was enough to be called a witch. If it came to that, the book never gave you the evidence of anything. It talked about "a handsome prince"... was he really, or was it just because he was a prince that people called handsome? As for "a girl who was as beautiful as the day was long"... well, which day? In midwinter it hardly ever got light! The stories don't want you to think, they just wanted you to believe what you were told.

  Terry Pratchett

  Beautiful, Girl, Book

  "The Wee Free Men". Book by Terry Pratchett, 2003.

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• What can I give Him,
  Poor as I am?
  If I were a shepherd
  I would bring a lamb.
  If I were a Wise Man
  I would do my part.
  Yet what can I give Him?
  I give Him my heart.

  Christina Rossetti

  Christmas, Wise, Heart

  Christina Rossetti, Simon Humphries (2008). “Poems and Prose”, p.211, Oxford University Press

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• The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. ... It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived.

  Ronald Hutton

  Christmas, Religious, Fashion

  Ronald Hutton (2001). “Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain”, p.71, OUP Oxford

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• She long ago accepted the fact that happiness is like, swallows in spring. It may come and nest under your eaves or it may not. You cannot command it.

  Elizabeth Goudge

  Easter, Spring, Long

  "The White Witch".

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• It is also absolutely correct that some British folk customs have descended directly from pagan rituals, such ... the giving of presents and decoration of homes with greenery at midwinter.

  Ronald Hutton

  Christmas, Home, Giving

  Ronald Hutton (2001). “The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft”, p.211, OUP Oxford

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• Any middle-aged woman knows that our feet are not for the faint of heart, especially in midwinter. I wear clogs, so it's actually like my feet are wooden now.

  Lisa Scottoline

  Heart, Feet, Middle

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• But Shakespeare knows what the sphinx thinks, if anybody does. His genius is penetrative as cold midwinter entering every room, and making warmth shiver in ague fits. I think Shakespeare never errs in his logical sequence in character. He surprises us, seems unnatural to us, but because we have been superficial observers; while genius will disclose those truths to which we are blind.

  William Alfred Quayle

  Character, Thinking, Entering

  William Alfred Quayle (1900). “A Hero and Some Other Folks”

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• Every year, in the deep midwinter, there descends upon this world a terrible fortnight. ... every shop is a choked mass of humanity ... nerves are jangled and frayed, purses emptied to no purposes, all amusements and all occupations suspended in favor of frightful businesses with brown paper, string, letters, cards, stamps, and crammed post offices. This period is doubtless a foretaste of whatever purgatory lies in store for human creatures.

  Rose Macaulay

  Christmas, Lying, Years

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• I have a congenital desire to contradict; my whole life is merely a chain of sad and unsuccessful contradictions to heart and mind. When faced with enthusiasm, I am seized by a midwinter freeze, and I suppose that frequent dealings with sluggish phlegmatics would have made a passionate dreamer.

  Mikhail Lermontov

  Heart, Dreamer, Mind

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• I was lying, but I wanted to rouse him. I have an inborn urge to contradict; my whole life has been a mere chain of sad and futile opposition to the dictates of either heart or reason. The presence of an enthusiast makes me as cold as a midwinter's day, and, I believe, frequent association with a listless phlegmatic would make me an impassioned dreamer.

  Mikhail Lermontov

  Lying, Believe, Heart

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• Oakbridge did his work with dramatics and prophecies that all would go horribly awry. Having dealt with him over midwinter, Kel wondered why the man hadn’t died of a heart attack. Instead he seemed to thrive on disaster and finding people seated in the wrong places.

  Tamora Pierce

  Heart, Men, People

  Tamora Pierce (2014). “Protector of the Small Quartet”, p.441, Random House Books for Young Readers

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