Willa Cather Quotes

The journey towards success is not always easy or upwards.

With great difficulty advancing by millimeters each year, I carve a road out of the rock. For millenniums my teeth have wasted and my nails broken to get there, to the other side, to the light and the open air. And now that my hands bleed and my teeth tremble, unsure in a cavity cracked by thirst and dust, I pause and contemplate my work. I have spent the second part of my life breaking the stones, drilling the walls, smashing the doors, removing the obstacles I placed between the light and myself in the first part of my life.

If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

That's why there are ten gates to pass through before you reach the garden. If life were easy there would be one gate. There would be no gates at all.

The depth of your struggle determines the height of your success.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

The only way round is through.

To the stars through thorns.

The hardest thing to do is to fail and keep pushing at the same time.

Very often the things we most desire come only after much patience and struggle.

Endure the journey that you take to reach your top moment. You might not get there right now but when you do, remember what you did to get there.

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

You've got to go through it to get to the end of it.

All this business of a labour to accomplish, before I can end, of words to say, a truth to recover, in order to say it, before I can end, of an imposed task, once known, long neglected, finally forgotten, to perform, before I can be done with speaking, done with listening, I invented it all, in the hope it would console me, help me to go on, allow me to think of myself as somewhere on a road, moving, between a beginning and an end, gaining ground, losing ground, getting lost, but somehow in the long run making headway.

Victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.

Everything of worth is found full of difficulties.

Nothing worthwhile is ever without complications.

Every work has got to pass through hundreds of difficulties before succeeding. Those that persevere will see the light, sooner or later.

Have patience. Everything is difficult before it is easy.

The road to success is long and up hill all the way

Success is a process... During that journey sometimes there are stones thrown at you, and you convert them into milestones.

Only ideas won by walking have any value.