I wonder how it is that so cheerful-looking a tree as the willow should ever have become associated with ideas of sadness. [ Hamerton ]

Trees the most lovingly shelter and shade us when, like the willow, the higher soar their summits the lowlier droop their boughs. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. [ Sir Walter Scott ]