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 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)

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

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