With long nights and grey days, it's easy to be dismissive about winter. But the darkest, coldest season of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) can also provide time to reflect, recharge and relish nature's time of pause. In the world of literature, winter has also provided plenty of inspiration – here are some of the best quotes about the season. 

“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.”

"I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."

"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship."

"I could hear everything, together with the hum of my hotel neon. I never felt sadder in my life. LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets godawful cold in the winter but there's a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle."

"Russian writers have a way with aphorisms. They probably spend all winter thinking them up.”

"In the night the snow came. She awoke on Christmas morning in that unmistakeable light, coming up from the earth and shining between her curtains."

"O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?"

"Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow"

“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearth rugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.”

"Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter stars seemed permanent."

Image: Alicia Fernandes/Penguin