As summer fades into the sunset, it’s time to celebrate the autumnal equinox. Fall is the season of apples, pumpkin spice, cinnamon swirls, and leaf peeping. Temperatures drop and daylight saving time ends, bringing gentle breezes and cozy nights. Set the tone with your students by sharing some of our favorite fall quotes in the classroom. Use them for inspiration, writing prompts, conversation starters, and more.
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Fall Quotes From Literature
Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple. —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar. —Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing
It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon. —Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost
I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. —L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. —Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks
Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring. —Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
In November, the smell of food is different. It is an orange smell. A squash and pumpkin smell. —Cynthia Rylant, In November
Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness. —Jane Austen
Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow, signaling the later days of autumn. —Dan Millman, The Life You Were Born to Live
And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves. —Virginia Woolf, Selected Works
Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale. —Lauren DeStefano, Wither
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. —Henry David Thoreau, Walden
The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider. —Jane Hirshfield, “The Heat of Autumn”
Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all. —Stanley Horowitz
Spring is beautiful, and summer is perfect for vacations, but autumn brings a longing to get away from the unreal things of life, out into the forest at night with a campfire and the rustling leaves. —Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, Friends O’ Mine
Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. —Samuel Butler, The Way of all Flesh
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. —Albert Camus, The Misunderstanding
Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him. —Hal Borland, Homeland: A Report From the Country
The falling leaf that tells of autumn’s death is, in a subtler sense, a prophecy of spring. —Robert G. Ingersoll
It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it. —Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. —Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
Autumn glows upon us like a splendid evening; it is the very sunset of the year. —Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village
Autumn can be glorious but menacing too—the long shadows, brisk winds, scurrying leaves, impending frost. —A.S.A. Harrison, The Silent Wife
The end is come in thunder and wild rain. Autumn has stormed the golden house of summer. —Fanny Kemble, “A Passionate Victorian”
There is no better time than the autumn to begin forgetting the things that trouble us, allowing them to fall away like dried leaves. —Paulo Coelho, Adultery
In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible. —Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
September is dressing herself in show of dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception. —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Outside, the September air was enticingly fragrant, yellow with pollen and rich, lemony sunlight. —Alice Hoffman, The River King
Dip a slice of bread in batter. That’s September: yellow, gold, soft and sticky. Fry the bread. Now you have October: chewier, drier, streaked with browns. —Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt, evoking orange-flowers, swallows, and regret. —Alexander Theroux, Darconville’s Cat
Outside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. —Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories
October is the month for painted leaves. —Henry David Thoreau
Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters. —Stephen King, Full Dark, No Stars
October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of glory, of ripeness. It is the picture-month. —Henry Ward Beecher, Morning and Evening Exercises
I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers. —Leif Enger, Peace Like a River
What of October, that ambiguous month, the month of tension, the unendurable month? —Doris Lessing, Martha Quest
October was always the least dependable of months … full of ghosts and shadows. —Joy Fielding, Tell Me No Secrets
Some of the days in November carry the whole memory of summer as a fire opal carries the color of moonrise. —Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Daybook
The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls, and the wind hurries on. —Aldo Leopold, The Sand Country of Aldo Leopold
It was November—the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. —Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island
In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still. —Cynthia Rylant, In November
November is chill, frosted mornings with a silver sun rising behind the trees, red cardinals at the feeders, and squirrels running scallops along the tops of the gray stone walls. —John Steinbeck, The Shape of a Year
November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year. —Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Long cold nights mark November’s return, grey rains fall, wind walks in the bronze oak leaves. —Gladys Taber, Still Cove Journal
Fall Quotes From Poetry
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
—Emily Brontë, “Fall, Leaves, Fall”
Give me autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,
Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows …
—Walt Whitman, “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun”
The pumpkin lies yellow, beneath the cold skies,
It’s luscious and mellow, and ready for pies.
—Walt Mason, “The Pumpkin”
The goldenrod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.
—Helen Hunt Jackson, “September”
a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. i think i too have known
autumn too long.
—E.E. Cummings, Sonnets—Unrealities V
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
—John Donne, Elegy IX: The Autumnal
When noon has past, there is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!
—Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.
—William Allingham, “Autumnal Sonnet”
Burning autumn leaves,
I yearn to make the bonfire
Bigger and bigger.
—Richard Wright, “Haiku: This Other World”
How bravely Autumn paints upon the sky
The gorgeous fame of Summer which is fled!
—Thomas Hood, “The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies”
Autumn resumes the land, ruffles the woods
with smoky wings, entangles them.
—Geoffrey Hill, New & Collected Poems
And Autumn, in his leafless bowers,
Is waiting for the Winter’s snow.
—John Greenleaf Whittier, “Autumn Thoughts”
The summer tresses of the trees are gone,
The woods of Autumn, all around our vale,
Have put their glory on.
—William Cullen Bryant, “Autumn Woods”
At last, small witches, goblins, hags,
And pirates armed with paper bags
Their costumes hinged on safety pins,
Go haunt a night of pumpkin grins.
—John Updike, A Child’s Calendar
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!
—Lydia Maria Child, “Thanksgiving Day”
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
—Robert Frost, “October”
Till the sun whispers, O remember!
You have but thirty days to run,
O sweet September!
—Francis Turner Palgrave, “The Golden Land”
I have been younger in October
than in all the months of spring.
—W.S. Merwin, Selected Poems
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky.
—William Butler Yeats, “The Wild Swans at Coole”
Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!
—Humbert Wolfe, “Autumn (Resignation)”
Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast.
—Sara Coleridge, “Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good Children”
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!
—Thomas Hood, “No!”
November’s night is dark and drear,
The dullest month of all the year.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Traits and Trials of Early Life
The morns are meeker than they were –
The nuts are getting brown –
The berry’s cheek is plumper –
The rose is out of town.
—Emily Dickinson, “The Morns Are Meeker Than They Were”
The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.
—Bliss Carman, “A Vagabond Song”
Shorter and shorter now the twilight clips
The days, as though the sunset gates they crowd …
—Alice Cary, “Autumn”
Why, it’s the climax of the year,—
The highest time of living!—
Till naturally its bursting cheer
Just melts into thanksgiving.
—Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Merry Autumn”
Fall Quotes by Songwriters and Musicians
Because I’m still in love with you / I want to see you dance again / Because I’m still in love with you / On this harvest moon. —Neil Young, “Harvest Moon”
When autumn comes / It doesn’t ask. / It just walks in where it left you last. / And you never know when it starts / Until there’s fog inside the glass around your summer heart. —John Mayer, “Something’s Missing”
And the leaves that are green turn to brown / And they wither with the wind / And they crumble in your hand. —Paul Simon, “Leaves That Are Green”
But now it’s time for me to go, the autumn moon lights my way. —Led Zeppelin, “Ramble On”
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. —Yoko Ono, “Season of Glass”
Float down like autumn leaves / Hush now, close your eyes before the sleep. —Ed Sheeran, “Autumn Leaves”
Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place / And I can picture it after all these days. —Taylor Swift, “All Too Well”
And we both know hearts can change / And it’s hard to hold a candle / In the cold November rain. —Guns n’ Roses, “November Rain”
In this autumn town where the leaves can fall / On either side of the garden wall / We laugh all night to keep the embers glowing. —Iron & Wine, “Autumn Town Leaves”
Autumn in New York / The gleaming rooftops at sundown. / Autumn in New York / It lifts you up when you’re run down. —Vernon Duke, “Autumn in New York”
And you can’t build a house of leaves / And live like it’s an evergreen. / It’s just a season thing / It’s just this thing that seasons do. —John Mayer, “Wheel”
The autumn days swung soft around me like cotton on my skin. —Fiona Apple, “Pale September”
Summer has come and passed / The innocent can never last. / Wake me up when September ends. —Green Day, “Wake Me Up When September Ends”
But I miss you most of all, my darling / When autumn leaves start to fall. —Johnny Mercer, “Autumn Leaves”
Through the trees comes autumn with her serenade / Melodies the sweetest music ever played. —Mel Tormé, “Autumn Serenade”
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest-home;
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin.
—Henry Alford, Traditional Hymn
More Inspiring Fall Quotes
It’s the first day of autumn! A time for hot chocolatey mornings and toasting marshmallow evenings, and best of all, leaping into leaves! —Winnie the Pooh, Pooh’s Grand Adventure
Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. —Joe Fox, You’ve Got Mail
Never jump in a pile of leaves with a wet sucker. —Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas, and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see. —Vincent van Gogh
Time ripens the substance of a life as the seasons mellow and perfect its fruits. The best apples fall latest and keep longest. —Amos Bronson Alcott, Table Talk
If you’re ever wondering what to wear, just dress like a pumpkin, you’re good to go. —Devendra Banhart
O’ pumpkin pie, your time has come ’round again, and I am autumnrifically happy! —Terri Guillemets
October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. —Nova Bair
In the fall / A soft breeze / Through the trees / Turns the leaves / Into fireworks confetti. —Laura Jaworski
I love the start of autumn when the trees in my garden change the colour of their leaves in one last dazzling display. —Michael Caine
I wonder if leaves feel lonely when they see their neighbors falling? —John Muir
Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace. —Kent Nerburn, Letters to My Son
