August is here — ushering in the end of summer and painting the world in the warm hues of sunflowers and sunset skies! It’s a month that feels slow and easy as we savor the heat and begin to settle back into our routines.
To help you bask in the golden light of August, we’ve curated a selection of inspiring quotes (and poems) about the eighth month of the year.
And because we’re Good Good Good — we’ve also highlighted the best quotes around August’s awareness days and notable events — like World Humanitarian Day, Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the March on Washington, and more. Plus, quotes from inspirational celebrities and leaders with August birthdays.
Whether you’re soaking up the daylight, celebrating an August birthday, or just looking to add a sunbeam of positivity to jumpstart the month, these quotes are for you. Scroll all the way through to find some hidden gems.
Here’s to making the most of August!
Explore more monthly quotes: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
The Best August Quotes —
Famous Quotes About August
“August is the slow, gentle month that stretches out the longest across the span of a year. It yawns and lingers on with the light in its palms.”
— Victoria Erickson
“This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realize that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”
— Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
— Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke their tender limbs.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Those late August mornings smelt of autumn from day-break till the hour when the sun-baked earth allowed the cool sea breezes to drive back the then less heavy aroma of threshed wheat, open furrows, and reeking manure.”
— Colette, The Ripening Seed
“I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven’t said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.”
— Tove Jansson
“When summer opens, I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“August was nearly over — the month of apples and falling stars, the last care-free month for the school children. The days were not hot, but sunny and limpidly clear — the first sign of advancing autumn.”
— Viktor Někrasov
“Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar.”
— William Faulkner
“But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
‘Cause it was never mine
And I can see us twisted in bedsheets
August sipped away like a bottle of wine
‘Cause you were never mine”
— Taylor Swift, August
“August creates as she slumbers, replete and satisfied.”
— Joseph Wood Krutch
“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning, The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”
— Natalie Babbitt
“When summer gathers up her robes of glory, and like a dream of beauty glides away.”
— Sarah Helen Whitman
Quotes for Awareness Holidays in August
A collection of quotes to celebrate August’s awareness months and national days.
→ Explore more of this month’s awareness days in our August calendar
Esther Day
August 3
“Esther Day is a reminder that we should all make an effort to appreciate the people we love while we have them.”
— John Green
“She just hugged me; held me close, didn’t say anything. And I realize now that that was… that’s the best way to love someone. Hold them close, know that you’re loved, let it wash over you. We got to love her and she got to love us. Amen?”
— Esther Earl, This Star Won’t Go Out
“A life is not meant to be half lived. It is meant to be fully, wholly embraced. If you want to make a change in the world you have to be strong. You have to take chances. You have to persevere. Sometimes you must blindly go in a direction that you may be unsure of, but one that you have faith will lead you to the right place.”
— Esther Earl, This Star Won’t Go Out
→ Read about how to celebrate Esther Day
International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
August 9
“Indigenous peoples are the guardians of the earth, the protectors of biodiversity, and the custodians of ancestral knowledge.”
— Tarcila Rivera Zea
“Awareness of the settler-colonialist context of U.S. history writing is essential if one is to avoid the laziness of the default position and the trap of a mythological unconscious belief in manifest destiny.”
— Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“Indigenous people and particularly Indigenous women are vital gatekeepers of health for their communities. The United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People safeguards the right to health without discrimination while also highlighting their to traditional medicines and health practices. Indigenous people also have unique knowledge and experience in traditional medicine, food systems, and one health approach that encompasses the health of humans, animals, and our environment.”
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General in a statement
World Humanitarian Day
August 19
“Optimism doesn’t mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation. It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise.”
— The Dalai Lama
“I do have reasons for hope: our clever brains, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and above all, the commitment of young people when they’re empowered to take action.”
— Jane Goodall
“Every action, no matter how small, is like drips on a rock — over time, they can carve a canyon through even the thickest, most immovable layer of rock.”
— Shannon Watts
→ Read more humanitarian quotes
Women’s Equality Day
August 26
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
— Audre Lorde
“We have to ensure that women have the opportunity to compete. We may have to start with girls’ education to ensure that we have enough well-educated, knowledgeable women in a critical mass to be able to hold leadership positions… Women are not asking for gifts in leadership, they’re now asking to just be made leaders, they want to compete effectively but too often they’re not allowed that opportunity to compete.”
— Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in an interview
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”
— Gloria Steinem
→ Read more quotes to empower women
Anniversary of the March on Washington
August 28
“It is our goal to really have America show up, this is not about issues for one group or one ethnic group. It’s about Americans. It’s about creating a climate for America to fulfill its true promise for all of its citizens.”
— Martin Luther King III, in an interview with The Washington Post
“We have come a great distance in this country in the 50 years. But we still have a great distance to go before we fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.” — John Lewis, in a speech, 2013
“We’re seeing oppression being legislated. I think everyone’s looking at all of this and in a lot of ways thinking, ‘What in the world is going on?’”
— Arndrea Waters King, in an interview with The Washington Post
National Grief Awareness Day
August 30
“I think that all human relationships are like a two-way street. You give and take. I think that’s especially important in grief. You give to your patients and their family members, but you can also take these beautiful, terrible moments.”
— Sandra Menendez, in an interview
“Grief is not linear. It doesn’t have a set endpoint or a predictable path. It comes and goes, ebbs and flows. It’s messy and painful, but it’s also a testament to the love we shared.”
— Megan Devine
“And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.”
— Maya Angelou
Birthday Quotes from Inspiring People Born in August
James Baldwin
August 2
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
— James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
— James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
— James Baldwin, Collected Essays
→ Read more James Baldwin quotes
Barack Obama
August 4
“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”
— Barack Obama
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
— Barack Obama
“What I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”
— Barack Obama
→ Read more Barack Obama quotes
John Green
August 24
“Everything goes except the love you pour into others and the world.”
— John Green
“For me, finding hope is not some philosophical exercise or sentimental notion; it is a prerequisite for my survival.”
— John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed
“You can’t see the future coming — not the terrors, for sure, but you also can’t see the wonders that are coming, the moments of light-soaked joy that await each of us.”
— John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed
→ Read more John Green quotes
Marsha P. Johnson
August 24
“We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“As long as gay people don’t have their rights all across America, there’s no reason for celebration.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race? I mean how many years does it take people to see that? We’re all in this rat race together!”
— Marsha P. Johnson
→ Read more Marsha P. Johnson quotes
Mother Teresa
August 27
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
— Mother Teresa
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
— Mother Teresa
“Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it.”
— Mother Teresa
→ Read more Mother Teresa quotes
August Poems
“A golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive.”
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun
and the lilies again are spread across the water.
I know now what they want is to touch each other.
Each of us wears a shadow.
But just now it is summer again
and I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another,
Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.”
— Mary Oliver, Felicity
“Let July be July. Let August be August.
and let your just be even in the uncertainty.
You don’t have to fix everything.
You don’t have to solve everything.
And you can still find peace
and grow
in the wild
of changing things”
— Morgan Harper Nichols
“My life’s long radiant Summer halts at last, And lo! beside my pathway I behold Pursuing Autumn glide: nor frost nor cold Has heralded her presence, but a vast Sweet calm that comes not till the year has passed Its fevered solstice, and a tinge of gold Subdues the vivid coloring of bold And passion-hued emotions. I will cast My August days behind me with my May, Nor strive to drag them into Autumn’s place, Nor swear I hope when I do but remember. Now violet and rose have had their day, I’ll pluck the soberer asters with good grace And call September nothing but September.”
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“Long drawn, the cool, green shadows
Steal o’er the lake’s warm breast,
And the ancient silence follows
the burning sun to rest. The calm of a thousand summers,
And dreams of countless Junes,
Return when the lake-wind murmurs
through golden August noons.”
— William Braithwaite
“You lead me
Into the spacious,
Autumnal country of my mind,
There to dig in fallen leaves,
And talk about the world.”
— Amy Lowell
“Let July be July
by allowing
yourself to trust:
it’s okay
if you cannot
make sense of it all
right now.
What matters
is that somehow,
you found grace
to breathing through.
And now,
you’ve made it to August
where you’ll find:
there is more to you.
Let August
be August
by allowing
yourself to trust:
you do not have to be
so hard on yourself
if you cannot make sense
of all that is changing.
In the coming days,
you will find mystery,
and you will also
find room to breathe
and you might just find
even in these unknowns:
you are more prepared
than you think.
You are free to take the time you need to feel what you need to feel… including the good feelings.
Don’t let them rush you. You are traveling at the pace you were meant to.
You are still free to pursue peace right here in the in-betweens.
Whatever happens this month, be gentle with yourself.
Even here, there is still space for us to rise above the fear... propelled into motion by love.
There is more to come.
More love.
More joy.
More grace.
More peace.
Let this be the August
you look back on and say:
somehow, through it all,
I learned to fall in love
with the journey.”
— Morgan Harper Nichols, August Reminders
Funny August Quotes
“Leaving any bookstore is hard, especially on a day in August, when the street outside burns and glares, and the books inside are cool and crisp to the touch.”
— Jane Smiley
“Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don’t think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.”
— Alice Hoffman
“Walking the streets of Charleston in the late afternoons of August was like walking through gauze or inhaling damaged silk.”
— Pat Conroy
“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer.”
— Jenny Han
Short August Quotes
“The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzled.”
— Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
“Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August.”
— Denise Levertov
“No one can believe that God is not good when the August gardens are in their heyday.”
— Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Daybook
“One day you discover you are alive… but, not long after, the sun goes out. Snow falls, but no one sees it, on an August noon.”
— Ray Bradbury
“August, the summer’s last messenger of misery, is a hollow actor.”
— Henry Rollins
“Dry August and warm, doth harvest no harm.”
—Thomas Tusser
“The cutting of the grass reminds me of the August practice.”
— Garth Brooks
“That August time it was delight. To watch the red moons wane to white.”
— Algernon Charles Swinburne
More August Quotes & Captions
“August has passed, and yet summer continues by force to grow days. They sprout secretly between the chapters of the year, covertly included between its pages.”
— Jonathan Safran Foer
“It was August and the fields were high with corn. In the orchard the last of the peaches clung to their branches and the apples were showing their first pinkish blush. The vegetable garden overflowed with produce: peppers, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash.”
— Melanie Gideon, Valley of the Moon
“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone.”
— Natalie Babbitt
“August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil everything I’ve been listening to in the late spring and summer.”
— Henry Rollins
“It is best to be born in April or August when the life-giving Sun is in its exaltation… for then we enter the sea of life on the crest-wave and are backed in the battle of existence by an abundant fund of vim and energy.”
— Max Heindel
