First Day Of Fall 2015 Quotes: 21 Famous Sayings About Autumn On The Equinox

We’ve survived the dog days of summer, and now it’s time to cool off. The autumn equinox takes place at 4:21 a.m. EDT on Wednesday when the sun moves directly over the equator, making day and night nearly the same length. That’s where the word comes from -- “equi” for equal in Latin combined with “nox” for night, WTOP reported.

Fall officially begins Wednesday and runs through Dec. 21, the winter solstice. But while people may agree on the season, they don’t agree on its name. Fall was originally called “harvest” in the 1200s, but by 300 years later people were using the term “autumn,” from the old French word autompne. Fall, from “fall of the leaf,” gained popularity in the 16th century. The British eventually chose to continue favoring “autumn” while North American explorers -- later, Americans -- used “fall,” according to Grammarist.

No matter what you call it, fall is a season for changing leaves and warm scarves. Celebrate the crisp weather with these famous quotes, collected from Good Reads and Quote Garden:

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." — F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

“Autumn wins you best by this, its mute / Appeal to sympathy for its decay.” ― Robert Browning

“At no other time does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

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

“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

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." — L.M. Montgomery

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

“When the bold branches / Bid farewell to rainbow leaves / Welcome wool sweaters.” ― B. Cybrill

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a lustre 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

“The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. 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

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

"The season for enjoying the fullness of life ― partaking of the harvest, sharing the harvest with others, and reinvesting and saving portions of the harvest for yet another season of growth." ― Denis Waitley

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ― Albert Camus

“It’s fall coming, I thought, I can smell that sour-molasses smell of silage, clanging the air like a bell – smell like somebody’s been burning oak leaves, left them to smolder overnight because they’re too green.” ― Ken Kesey

“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

“Autumn's the mellow time.” ― William Allingham

“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

“Wild is the music of autumnal winds / Amongst the faded woods.” ― William Wordsworth

“Autumn was her happiest season. There was an expectancy about its sounds and shapes: the distant thunk pomp of leather and young bodies on the practice field near her house made her think of bands and cold Coca-Colas, parched peanuts and the sight of people's breath in the air. There was even something to look forward to when school started ― renewals of old feuds and friendships, weeks of learning again what one half forgot in the long summer. Fall was hot supper time with everything to eat one missed in the morning when too sleepy to enjoy it.” ― Harper Lee

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