October

October is the month for painted leaves…. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight. – Henry David Thoreau, “Autumnal Tints”

October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book. – John Sinor (1930–1996), in San Diego Union-Tribune

October sunshine bathed the park with such a melting light that it had the dimmed impressive look of a landscape by an old master. Leaves, one, two at a time, sidled down through the windless air. – Elizabeth Enright, “Apple Seed and Apple Thorn,” 1953

From the latter weeks of October to Christmas-eve… is the period during which happiness is in season, which, in my judgment, enters the room with the tea-tray… – Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859), Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

October is a hallelujah! reverberating in my body year-round…. – John Nichols (b.1940), The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn

The clear light that belongs to October was making the landscape radiant. – Florence Bone (1875–1971), The Morning of To‑Day, 1907

But in October what a feast to the eye our woods and groves present! The whole body of the air seems enriched by their calm, slow radiance. They are giving back the light they have been absorbing from the sun all summer. – John Burroughs (1837–1921), “The Falling Leaves,” Under the Maples

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, c.1961

October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again. – Hal Borland (1900–1978)

September is dressing herself in showy 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 (1809–1894), “Autumn,” The Atlantic Almanac, 1868

An October sort of city even in spring. – Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make, 1951

My favorite color is October. – Author unknown

Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul… but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October. – Peggy Toney Horton