[W]inter tames man, woman and beast…. – William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (Grumio)

Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it. – Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, translated from German

In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold. – Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes

The life of man is a winter away. – Witts Recreations: Selected from the Finest Fancies of Modern Muses, with A Thou