This Will Help You Celebrate The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year, as well as the official start of winter — and in 2016, it will be occurring on Wednesday, Dec. 21. If you need a little help mentally preparing yourself for the long, cold winter that awaits you, these quotes that will help you celebrate the winter solstice can hopefully be of some major service. There's no doubt that the winter is a tough season to make it through, but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the challenge of it (as well as the beauty of it) during the season.

These 13 quotes don't claim that winter is something it isn't. Most of them acknowledge the difficulty of the season, but they don't leave it at that. Instead, they focus in on how majestic a snowy winter can be, as well as what promises are awaiting us all following the freezing months. After all, you can't have spring without winter, am I right?

Take a few moments to prep yourself for this year's winter by taking a read through these thoughtful and inspiring quotes. It's time for you to celebrate the winter that awaits you, not dread it.

1. "Winter is a season of recovery and preparation." — Paul Theroux

2. "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." — Albert Camus

3. "The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory." — Gary Zukav

4. "You can't get too much winter in the winter." — Robert Frost

5. "Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." — Pietro Aretino

6. "The spring, summer, is quite a hectic time for people in their lives, but then it comes to autumn, and to winter, and you can't but help think back to the year that was, and then hopefully looking forward to the year that is approaching." — Enya

7. "People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy." — Anton Chekhov

8. "We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives. — Gary Zukav

9. "In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." — William Blake

10. "No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." — Hal Borland

11. "At the Summer Solstice, all is green and growing, potential coming into being, the miracle of manifestation painted large on the canvas of awareness. At the Winter Solstice, the wind is cold, trees are bare and all lies in stillness beneath blankets of snow." — Gary Zukav

12. "While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best." — Tom Allen

13. "I believe in process. I believe in four seasons. I believe that winter's tough, but spring's coming. I believe that there's a growing season. And I think that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better." — Steve Southerland

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