Winter Holiday Quotes

Compiled by the editors of Guidance for Body, Mind, and Spirit.

These short quotes about the beauty of the season, peace, and light help to remind us of the deeper meaning of the winter holidays. They’re perfect if you’re looking for some beautiful words to include in your holiday cards or on a gift tag, or if you just need a little uplifting inspiration.

Winter

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
—Anne Bradstreet

Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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 G. Rossetti

One kind word can warm three winter months.
—Japanese proverb

O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb’d Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.
—William Cowper

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

‘We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,’
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
—Oliver Herford

Year’s end, all
corners of this
floating world, swept.
—Basho

Peace

We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

—Anton Chekhov

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
—Baruch Spinoza

Peace has never come from dropping bombs. Real peace comes from enlightenment and educating people to behave more in a divine manner.
—Carlos Santana

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.
—Jawaharlal Nehru

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

—Malcolm X

If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
—Moshe Dayan

Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life…, our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.
—Thich Nhat Hanh

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.
—Thomas a Kempis

Light

And this I know; whether the one True Light
Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,
One flash of it within the Tavern caught
Better than in the temple lost outright.
—Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
—Edith Wharton

Beautiful light is born of darkness, so the faith that springs from conflict is often the strongest and the best.
—R. Turnbull

Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it’s warm and you won’t see the dust on the floor.
—Irish Proverb

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.

—Og Mandino

As I lived up to the highest light I had, higher and higher light came to me.
—Peace Pilgrim