October is here — welcoming the heart of fall and gracing us with a cozy energy that makes us want to savor every moment of amber foliage and crisp, clear skies!
It’s a month of festive pumpkin patches, hot apple cider, and the comforting embrace of oversized sweaters.
To help you delight in the splendor of October, we’ve curated a selection of positive and inspiring quotes (and poems) about the tenth month of the year.
And because we’re Good Good Good — we’ve also highlighted the best quotes around October’s awareness days and significant events — like World Teachers Day, World Homeless Day, LGBTQ+ History Month, International Day of the Girl, and World Hunger Day.
Plus, quotes from inspirational celebrities and leaders with October birthdays.
Whether you’re embracing the autumnal spirit, celebrating an October birthday, or just looking to infuse a little warmth and positivity into the start of your month, these quotes are for you. Scroll all the way through to find some hidden gems.
Here’s to making the most of October!
Explore more monthly quotes: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
The Best Quotes About October
Famous Quotes About October
“October is the month of painted leaves.
Their rich glow now flashes round the world.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints
“The end of the summer is not the end of the world. Here’s to October…”
— A.A. Milne
“October was always the least dependable of months… full of ghosts and shadows.”
— Joy Fielding
“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the earth with mellow warmth.”
— Elizabeth George Speare
“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
— Humbert Wolfe
Quotes for Awareness Holidays in October
A collection of quotes to celebrate October’s awareness months and national days.
→ Explore more of this month’s awareness days in our October calendar
Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 - October 15
“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”
— Cesar Chavez
“When I was growing up, my parents insisted that we speak Spanish and read Spanish. I’m so happy they did that, because we developed their culture and their roots.”
— Tito Puente
“As an immigrant, I appreciate, far more than the average American, the liberties we have in this country. Silence is a big enemy of morality. I don’t want our blunders in history to get repeated.”
— Gloria Estefan
→ Explore more quotes about Hispanic Heritage Month
→ Read about how to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
Banned Books Week
October 1-7
“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It’s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.”
— James Howe
“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.”
— Judy Blume
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
— Oscar Wilde
“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.”
— George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession
→ Read more quotes about banned books
→ Read about how to celebrate Banned Books Week
LGBTQ+ History Month
October 1 - October 31
“Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.”
— Harvey Milk
“All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more — and no less — heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century.”
— Tammy Baldwin
“We should celebrate who we are every day and never forget those who struggled and sacrificed so that we could live freely.”
— Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
World Teachers Day
October 5
“Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.”
— Colleen Wilcox
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
— Nelson Mandela
“The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
— Maria Montessori
→ Read more quotes about teachers
→ Read more quotes about teacher appreciation
World Homeless Day
October 10
“Making it so you don’t have to look at homeless people isn’t a solution to homelessness.”
— Sara Luterman
“Having an open mind means learning to add more to our already existing beliefs about affirming dignity of those who are impoverished.”
— Terence Lester, I See You“
“Support for shelters and transitional living and housing programs is necessary if we are going to change the landscape for homeless boys and girls in America.”
— Jewel
→ Read more quotes about homelessness
→ Read about how to help people experiencing homelessness
International Day of the Girl
October 11
“Girls should never be afraid to be smart.”
— Emma Watson
“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”
— Bethany Hamilton
“Be that strong girl that everyone knew would make it through the worst, be that fearless girl, the one who would dare to do anything, be that independent girl who didn’t need a man; be that girl who never backed down.”
— Taylor Swift
World Hunger Day
October 16
“If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
— Mother Teresa
“It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.”
— Simone Weil
“Food is national security. Food is economy. It is employment, energy, history. Food is everything.”
— Chef José Andrés
→ Read more quotes about hunger
Quotes from Inspiring with October Birthdays
Jimmy Carter
October 1
“The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.”
— Jimmy Carter
“My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.”
— Jimmy Carter
“It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.”
— Jimmy Carter
→ Read more quotes from Jimmy Carter
Desmond Tutu
October 7
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
— Desmond Tutu
“If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
— Desmond Tutu
“We are each made for goodness, love, and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.”
— Desmond Tutu
→ Read more quotes from Desmond Tutu
Eleanor Roosevelt
October 11
“You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
→ Read more quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt
Paul Farmer
October 26
“For me, an area of moral clarity is: you’re in front of someone who’s suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.”
— Paul Farmer
“With rare exceptions, all of your most important achievements on this planet will come from working with others — or, in a word, partnership.”
— Paul Farmer, To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation
“There is an enormous difference between seeing people as the victims of innate shortcomings and seeing them as the victims of structural violence. Indeed, it is likely that the struggle for rights is undermined whenever the history of unequal chances, and of oppression, is erased or distorted.”
— Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor
→ Read more quotes from Paul Farmer
Bob Ross
October 29
“It’s hard to see things when you are too close. Take a step back and look.”
— Bob Ross
“Talent is a pursued interest. Anything you’re willing to practice, you can do.”
— Bob Ross
“We don’t laugh because we feel good, we feel good because we laugh.”
— Bob Ross
Motivational October Quotes
“October is a fallen leaf, but it is also the wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hill once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above that hill once again.”
— Hal Borland, This Hill, This Valley: A Memoir
“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Ah, Lovely October, as you usher in the season that awakens my soul, your awesome beauty compels my spirit to soar like a leaf caught in an autumn breeze and my heart to sing like a heavenly choir.”
— Peggy Toney Horton
“October is a symphony of permanence and change.”
— Bonaro W. Overstreet
Funny October Quotes
“Chicago is an October sort of city, even in spring.”
— Nelson Algren
“If you’re ever wondering what to wear, just dress like a pumpkin, you’re good to go.”
— Devendra Banhart
“I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring.”
— W. S. Merwin
“October is the treasure of the year and all the months pay bounty to her store.”
— Paul Laurence Dunbar
“I long for the days of pumpkins and ghosts; when the dead use homes and people as hosts.”
— E. Reyes
“Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve.”
— Ray Bradbury
October Poems
“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, Poems
“O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow,
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know;
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away…”
— Robert Frost
“A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
Blackbirds and the sun of October
Summery
On the hill’s shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
To the rain wringing
Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.”
— Dylan Thomas, Collected Poems
“October is the treasurer of the year,
And all the months pay bounty to her store;
The fields and orchards still their tribute bear,
And fill her brimming coffers more and more.”
— Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life
“The sweet calm sunshine of October, now warms the low spot; upon its grassy mold the purple oak-leaf falls; the birchen bough drops its bright spoil like arrow-heads, and the needled pine-leaf turf is carpeted with rosemary and juniper, and the dark ground overgrown with dewberry and creeping bramble, twiners and runners loving the dark.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Autumn Quotes
“Autumn… the year’s last, loveliest smile.”
— William Cullen Bryant
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky.”
— William Butler Yeats
“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, Attachments
“Autumn… the year’s last, loveliest smile.”
— William Cullen Bryant
“In October, a maple tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp. Even on cloudy days, its presence helps to dispel the gloom.”
— John Burroughs
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”
— Emily Brontë
“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”
— Jim Bishop
“Autumn colors remind us we are all one dancing in the wind.”
— Lorin Morgan-Richards
Short October Quotes
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
— L. M. Montgomery
“October, crisp, misty, golden October, when the light is sweet and heavy.”
— Angela Carter
“You don’t waste October sunshine.”
— Katherine Arden
“The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky.”
— W. B. Yeats
“In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
— Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
More October Quotes & Sayings
“He loved October. Had always loved it. There was something sad and beautiful about it — the ending and beginning of things.”
— Jacqueline Woodson, If You Come Softly
“What the light looks like in the pear trees, in October, is a hundred teardrops of gold, the whole orchard weeping.”
— Carole Maso, The Art Lover
“October proved a riot to the senses and climaxed those giddy last weeks before Halloween.”
— Keith Donohue
“First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.”
— Ray Bradbury
“October sunshine bathed the park with such a melting light that it had the dimmed impressive look of a landscape by an old master.”
— Elizabeth Enright
“All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.”
— Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel
“October air, complete with dancing leaves and sighing winds greeted him as he stepped from the bus onto the dusty highway. Coolness embraced. The scent of burning wood hung crisp in the air from somewhere far in the distance.”
— Jaime Allison Parker, The Delta Highway
“I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers.”
— Leif Enger
“October made the leaves on Main Street fit for a crown. They dripped from the trees in jewel-toned shades: yellow and orange and fiery red. The cool wind sent a confetti-cluster of leaves down around us.”
— Natalie Lloyd, Over the Moon
