100 Autumn Quotes that Show the Beauty of the Season

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Updated April 18, 2023

Enjoy the beauty of fall and the changing seasons all year long with these Autumn quotes.

There is nothing quite like the change that autumn brings as the seasons change.

People love the crisp fall air, drinking apple cider and taking in the stunning fall colors.

Others enjoy things like football season and chili by the warmth of a fire.

What’s your favorite thing about autumn?

Some days give you a reminder of what summer graced you with and other days give you a preview of what winter has in store.

Autumn is that sweet spot between the two that you get to enjoy year after year.

In that respect, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, thought-provoking autumn quotes and sayings, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Peaceful autumn quotes

1. “Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love—that makes life and nature harmonize.” – George Eliot

2. “Autumn mornings: sunshine and crisp air, birds and calmness, year’s end and day’s beginnings.” – Terri Guillemets

3. “I saw old autumn in the misty morn stand shadowless like silence, listening to silence.” – Thomas Hood

4. “Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.” – Samuel Butler

5. “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.” – John Donne

6. “There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster 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

7. “Autumn is the season to find contentment at home by paying attention to what we already have.” – Unknown

8. “Autumn’s the mellow time.” – William Allingham

9. “Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” – Emily Brontë

Also, read these beautiful March quotes welcoming spring.

Autumn quotes about its beauty

10. “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all.” – Stanley Horowitz

11. “I loved autumn, the season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it.” – Lee Maynard

12. “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

13. “Dancing of the autumn laves on a surface of a lake is a dream we see when we are awake.” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

14. “Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.” – John Howard Bryant

15. “Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron, and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under the harvest skies.” – Sharon Kay Penman

16. “And when you take something like the changing colour of autumn leaves and start to ask why; you’re starting off on an intellectual journey which will take you beyond that moment of visual satisfaction while robbing nothing from that experience.” – Alice Roberts

17. “The tints of autumn…a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.” – John Greenleaf Whittier

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of garden quotes about the power of nature.

18. “How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” – John Burroughs

19. “There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.” – Joe Wheeler

20. “October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.” – Nova Blair

Autumn quotes about changes

21. And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves…” – Virginia Woolf

22. “Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.” – J.K. Rowling

23. “Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.” – Chad Sugg

24. “The heat of autumn / is different from the heat of summer / One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.” – Jane Hirshfield

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of summer quotes to celebrate the season of outdoor exploration and fun.

25. “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

26. “Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.” – Shira Tamir

27. “Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.” – Elizabeth Bowen

28. “Autumn leaves are falling, filling up the streets; golden colors on the lawn, nature’s trick or treat!” – Rusty Fischer

29. “And the sun took a step back, the leaves lulled themselves to sleep and autumn was awakened.” – Racquel Franco

30. “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” – Unknown

Also, check out these inspirational quotes about the month of August.

Autumn quotes to inspire love

31. Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

32. “…I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

33. “I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves.” – Ann Drake

34. “Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

35. “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. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” – Rainbow Rowell

36. “There is one thing I do miss in L.A. I love autumn.” – Christopher Waltz

37. “For anyone who lives in the oak-and-maple area of New England, there is a perennial temptation to plunge into a purple sea of adjectives about October.” – Hal Borland

38. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L.M. Montgomery

If you’re enjoying this article, you might also like our collection of October quotes about its nature and beauty.

Fun autumn quotes

39. “It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” – Winnie the Pooh

40. “Designers want me to dress like spring, in billowing things. I don’t feel like spring. I feel like a warm red autumn.” – Marilyn Monroe

41. “If a year was tucked inside of a clock, then autumn would be the magic hour.” – Victoria Erickson

42. “The autumn wind is a pirate. Blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along swaggering boisterously. His face is weather beaten, he wears a hooded sash with a silver hat about his head… The autumn wind is a raider, pillaging just for fun.” – Steve Sabol

Autumn quotes to motivate you

43. “I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.” – Dodinsky

44. “No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.” – Samuel Johnson

45. “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” – Jim Bishop

46. “Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable…the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street…by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.” – Hal Borland

47. “It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the autumn.” – B.C. Forbes
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of farmer quotes that will make you love the land.

48. “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot

49. “Or maybe spring is the season of love and fall the season of mad lust. Spring for flirting but fall for the untamed delicious wild thing.” – Elizabeth Cohen

50. “I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of the time.” – Robert Browning

If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of spring quotes, celebrating the new season.

Autumn quotes to elevate your mind

51. “Nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn.” – Umberto Eco

52. “An autumn garden has a sadness when the sun is not shining…”― Francis Brett Young

53. “Autumn is a season followed immediately by looking forward to spring.” – Doug Larson

54. “Autumn is leaving its mellowness behind for its spiky, rotted stage. Don’t remember summer even saying goodbye.”― David Mitchell

55. “She looked like autumn, when leaves turned and fruit ripened.”― Sarah Addison Allen

56. “Autumn is no time to lie alone.”― Murasaki Shikibu

57. “Autumn is as joyful and sweet as an untimely end.”― Remy de Gourmont

58. “When the autumn meets the tranquillity, there you can see the King of the Sceneries!”― Mehmet Murat ildan

59. “I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it.”― Lee Maynard

60. “Sometimes I’m the winter tree and most of these times, a gathering of autumn leaves.”― Goitsemang Mvula

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of winter quotes celebrating the changes of the season.

Thoughtful autumn quotes

61. “Wild is the music of the autumnal winds amongst the faded woods.” – William Wordsworth

62. “The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” – John Muir

63. Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

64. “I see … the turning of a leaf dancing in an autumn sun, and brilliant shades of crimson glowing when a day is done.” — Mattie Elliott

65. “The Autumn is old; The sere leaves are flying; He hath gathered up gold, And now he is dying… Old age, begin sighing!” – Thomas Hood

66. “Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.” — Faith Baldwin

67. “Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him.” – Hal Borland

68. “You can’t hide your true colors as you approach the autumn of your life.” — Unknown

69. “It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it.” – Diana Gabaldon

70. “Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground.” — Andrea Gibson

More autumn quotes and sayings

71. “Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” – Truman Capote

72. “Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” – Humbert Wolfe

73. “I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.” – Virginia Woolf

74. “And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood.” – William Cullen Bryant
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of sunflower quotes to learn from.

75. “Autumn is the time when nature takes her watercolor to the trees.” – Laura Jaworski

76. “Even those fallen leaves dance, on the musical wind cadence.” – Anoushka Tyagi

77. “Then the trees, after their long silence, began to talk again, in yellow and red. And the days began to shrink under one’s very eyes.” – Mirrlees

78. “Autumn! The greatest show of all times!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

79. “Summer is leaving silently. Much like a traveler approaching the end of an amazing journey.” – Darnell Lamont Walker

80. “All seasons are beautifully filled with splendid wonders.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

Autumn quotes that sets the mood for the fall season

81. “It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.” – Sarah Addison Allen

82. “You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen.” – Ernest Hemingway

83. “Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?” – Mo Yan

84. “Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.” – Yoko Ono

85. “Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, tears from the depths of some devine despair. Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, in looking on the happy autumn fields, and thinking of the days that are no more.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

86. “The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.” – Rumi

87. “We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.” – Zhuangzi

88. “Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.” – Walter Scott

89. “It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can’t help but be sensitive to that.” – Hubert de Givenchy

90. 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

Autumn Quotes To Make You Feel The Glow

91. “There is so much beauty in autumn and so much wisdom; so much separation and so much sorrow!” — Mehmet Murat Ildan

92. “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

93. “When bounteous autumn rears her head, he joys to pull the ripened pear.” — John Dryden

94. “Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow, signaling the later days of autumn.” — Dan Millman

95. “In heaven it is always autumn.” — John Donne

96. “Autumn glows upon us like a splendid evening; it is the very sunset of the year.” — Mary Russell Mitford

97. “My visit this autumn is an opportunity to continue that rich tradition of visits between Canterbury and Rome.” — Rowan Williams

98. “Thou blossom bright with autumn dew, And colored with the heaven’s own blue.” — William C. Bryant

99. “How bravely Autumn paints upon the sky The gorgeous fame of Summer which is fled!” — Thomas Hood

100. But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees.” — C. S. Lewis

Did you enjoy these autumn quotes?

If you don’t live in a location with changing seasons, plan a trip to a state like Maine or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or any state that experiences the four distinct seasons.

Check online to see when the fall colors are predicted to peak and plan your trip for that time.

You’ll be amazed at the stunning landscapes that you’ll find.

There’s nothing quite like it.

The changing seasons can also be applied to your life.

Just as nature goes through a transformation each year, lives go through ups and downs.