True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue: it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter has given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and blood.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English Poet, Novelist
Magnificent autumn! He comes not like a pilgrim, clad in russet weeds; not like a hermit, clad in gray; but like a warrior with the stain of blood on his brazen mail.—His crimson scarf is rent; his scarlet banner dripping with gore; his step like a flail on the threshing floor.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.
—Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American Ecologist, Conservationist
Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
Oh, the long and dreary winter! Oh, the cold and cruel winter.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Indoors or out, no one relaxes
In March, that month of wind and taxes,
The wind will presently disappear,
The taxes last us all year.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Summer has set in with its usual severity.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
In a way winter is the real spring, the time when the inner things happen, the resurge of nature.
—Edna O’Brien (b.1932) Irish Novelist, Short-Story Writer
My sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colors are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content.
—Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese Author, Philologist
It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
—Russell Baker (1925–2019) American Journalist, Humorist, Television Host
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
—Samuel Butler
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Only with winter-patience can we bring
The deep desired, long-awaited spring.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
O suns and skies and clouds of June, and flowers of June together. Ye cannot rival for one hour October’s bright blue weather.
—Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–85) American Novelist, Civil Rights Activist
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.
—Chinese Proverb
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
Spring is when life’s alive in everything.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
One cannot walk into an April day in a negative way. With spring, each man’s plans and hopes result in new efforts, fresh actions. All of which has a mighty important bearing on the economy. There are those of us who think that the psychology of man, each and together, has more impact on markets, business, services and building and all the fabric of an economy than all the more measurable statistical indices.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple tree.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Leave a Reply