There's a four letter word that causes either mass excitement or mass panic depending on who you are, where you're from, or your general mood at any given point in time. I'm talking about fluffy, sparkly, wet, splotches of snow. As someone from the great state of Wisconsin, I have a close love-hate relationship with the word. On one hand, I appreciate and love the beauty of sparkling, fresh snow on my surrounding landscape; on the other hand, there is nothing beautiful about getting my car out of a ditch, or being constantly cold, or damp pants cuffs all the freakin' time.

And yet, I could never be separated from snow for more than a year, because despite the negatives, snow makes me appreciate our beautiful world a little more. Plus, activities like skiing, snow-shoeing, ice-skating, hanging out with hot chocolate on a blustery day, wouldn't be possible without snow.

So as a special ode to snow, I've compiled a list of quotes on the subject. For all of you die-hard winter fans out there, you're welcome. And for all of you that are not so fond of winter, maybe these words will help instill some wonder back into your life.

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.
-Unknown

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, where is it to be found?
-J.B. Priestley

The snow doesn't give a soft white damn Whom it touches.
-E.E. Cummings


They were playing old Bob Dylan, more than perfect for narrow Village streets close to Christmas and the snow whirling down in big feathery flakes, the kind of winter where you want to be walking down a city street with your arm around a girl like on the old record cover.
-Donna Tartt

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.
-Susan Orlean

The snow came up to the top of Georgie's calves--she had to lift her feet high to make any progress. Her ears and eyelids were freezing. . .God, she'd never even been able to imagine this much cold before. How could people live someplace that so obviously didn't want them?
-Rainbow Rowell


A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.
-Markus Zusak

Thank goodness for the first snow. It was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen--things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.
-Candace Bushnell


A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
-Carl Reiner

Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.
-Mary Oliver


I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.' And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in green, and dance about--whenever the wind blows.
-Lewis Carroll

Snow falling soundlessly in the middle of the night will always fill my heart with sweet clarity.
-Novala Takemoto



. . .This is the Hour of Lead--
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow--
First--Chill--then Stupor--then the letting go --.
-Emily Dickinson

There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.
-William Sharp

. . .there's just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you're special, even though you know you're not.
-Carol Rifka Brunt


Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.
-Sylvia Plath