As summer comes to a close and many of us head back to school, each of us need to take a little bit of time to reflect on all of the amazing things that have taken place over the past couple months. These care free memories act as a refuge, a safe haven, for so many during the winter and spring months where the weather is bleak and the cold seems to seep deep into your bones. I speak from personal experience when I say that it is extremely hard to remember all of these amazing summer experiences when it's the middle of January and you're holed up inside trying to ride out the snow storm of the century. So, for everyone who needs to hold onto that summer feeling just a little bit longer, here are eleven quotes that'll hit you with a little bit of summer time nostalgia:
1. "It was June and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” - Maud Hart Lovelace, "Betsy-Tacy and Tib"
2. “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 Babbit, "Tuck Everlasting"
3. "In early June the world of leaf and blade and flower explodes, and every sunset is different." - John Steinbeck, "The Winter of our Discontent"
4. “In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible.” - Sarah Dessen, "Along for the Ride"
5. "The summer night is like a perfection of thought"- Wallace Stevens, "The House was Quiet and the world was calm" -
6. “At these times, the things that troubled her seemed far away and unimportant: all that mattered was the hum of the bees and the chirp of birdsong, the way the sun gleamed on the edge of a blue wildflower, the distant bleat and clink of grazing goats.”- Alison Croggon, "The Naming"
7. "Summertime is always the best of what might be." - Charles Bowden
8. “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, "Tree of Codes"
9. “The beauty of that June day was almost staggering. After the wet spring, everything that could turn green had outdone itself in greenness and everything that could even dream of blooming or blossoming was in bloom and blossom. The sunlight was a benediction. The breezes were so caressingly soft and intimate on the skin as to be embarrassing.” - Dan Simmons, "Drood"
10. “Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That’s why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe.”- Benjamin Alire Sáenz, "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe"
11. “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” - John Lubbock, "The Use of Life"
