--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Is not this a true autumn day? Just the…" description: "\"“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migr..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c4/george-eliot-84_autumn_is-not-this-a-true-autumn-day-just-the-s_313757.png" --- # Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy… ![“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. 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…” quote by George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c4/george-eliot-84_autumn_is-not-this-a-true-autumn-day-just-the-s_313757.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c4/george-eliot-84_autumn_is-not-this-a-true-autumn-day-just-the-s_313757.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c4/george-eliot-84_autumn_is-not-this-a-true-autumn-day-just-the-s_313757.png) > ““Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. 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." \[ Letter to Miss Lewis , Oct. 1, 1841\]”” [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Autumn evokes deep melancholy and harmony, offering solace and inspiration to the restless spirit. **In simple terms:** Autumn brings soothing melancholy and harmony. Key Takeaway Embrace the season’s quiet inspiration. Themes nature autumn melancholy inspiration solace Mood reflective calm inspired Type literary poetic philosophical When to use this quote - writing poetry - walking in woods - photographing foliage - meditative practice Key Concepts seasonal affect mindfulness creative reflection Questions to Reflect On - How does autumn affect your mood? - What creative work does this season inspire? A Different Perspective Some may find melancholy draining rather than uplifting. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Autumn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn/) [Autumn Day](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn-day/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Life And Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-and-nature/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Restless spirit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/restless-spirit/) [Seasons](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seasons/) [Weather](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/weather/) ## Related quotes > [Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/is-not-this-a-true-autumn-day-just-the-still-melancholy-that-i-love-2/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/delicious-autumn-my-very-soul-is-wedded-to-it-and-if-i-were-a-bird-i/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/delicious-autumn-my-very-soul-is-wedded-to-it/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Two autumns and I have not changed enough.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-williams/two-autumns-and-i-have-not-changed-enough/) [Saul Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-williams/) > [I watch the springs, the summers, the autumns; And when comes the winter snow monotonous, I shut all the doors and shutters To build…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-baudelaire/i-watch-the-springs-the-summers-the-autumns-and-when-comes-the-winter/) [Charles Baudelaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-baudelaire/) > [I love Toronto's long autumns, warm with windy swirls of golden spores, redolent with giant, sun-roasted leaves flapping up and down the streets, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-maddin/i-love-toronto-s-long-autumns-warm-with-windy-swirls-of-golden-spores/) [Guy Maddin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/guy-maddin/) > [It is only by spring that the death of the autumns returns. What about winter, which is death? When the pure snow white covers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sorin-cerin/it-is-only-by-spring-that-the-death-of-the-autumns-returns-what-about/) [Sorin Cerin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sorin-cerin/) > [Spring, if it lingers more than a week beyond its span, starts to hunger for summer to end the days of perpetual promise. Summer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clive-barker/spring-if-it-lingers-more-than-a-week-beyond-its-span-starts-to/) [Clive Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clive-barker/) > [“Autumns reward western Kansas for the evils that the remaining seasons impose: winter's rough Colorado winds and hip-high, sheep-slaughtering snows; the slushes and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/truman-capote/autumns-reward-western-kansas-for-the-evils-that-the-remaining/) [Truman Capote](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/truman-capote/) > [It is only by spring that the death of the autumns returns.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sorin-cerin/it-is-only-by-spring-that-the-death-of-the-autumns-returns/) [Sorin Cerin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sorin-cerin/) > [I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen, of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been; Of yellow…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-r-r-tolkien-2/i-sit-beside-the-fire-and-think-of-all-that-i-have-seen-of-meadow/) [J. R. R. Tolkien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-r-r-tolkien-2/) > [Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/truman-capote/aprils-have-never-meant-much-to-me-autumns-seem-that-season-of/) [Truman Capote](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/truman-capote/) > [“But what after all is one night? A short space, especially when the darkness dims so soon, and so soon a bird sings, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/but-what-after-all-is-one-night-a-short-space-especially-when-the/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [“I thought of many an autumn I had known: Seemly autumns approaching deliberately, with amplitude. I thought of wild asters, Michaelmas daisies, mushrooms, leaves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-enright/i-thought-of-many-an-autumn-i-had-known-seemly-autumns-approaching/) [Elizabeth Enright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-enright/) > [Everyone goes through their winters and springs, and their summers and autumns.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bette-midler/everyone-goes-through-their-winters-and-springs-and-their-summers-and/) [Bette Midler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bette-midler/) ## More by George Eliot > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-the-effect-of-her-being-on-those-around-her-was-incalculably/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/scepticismcan-never-be-thoroughly-applied-else-life-would-come-to-a/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/under-every-guilty-secret-there-is-hidden-a-brood-of-guilty-wishes/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [The most powerful movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for nothing special, but is a yearning to escape from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/the-most-powerful-movement-of-feeling-with-a-liturgy-is-the-prayer/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [ “\[W\]e must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/w-e-must-learn-to-accommodate-ourselves-to-the-discovery-that-some-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Mr. Casaubon had never had a strong bodily frame, and his soul was sensitive without being enthusiastic: it was too languid to thrill out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/mr-casaubon-had-never-had-a-strong-bodily-frame-and-his-soul-was/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“... she took her husband's jokes and joviality as patiently as everything else, considering that "men would be so", and viewing the stronger sex…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/she-took-her-husband-s-jokes-and-joviality-as-patiently-as-everything/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [What is opportunity to the man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into nonentity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/what-is-opportunity-to-the-man-who-can-t-use-it-an-unfecundated-egg/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/and-of-course-men-know-best-about-everything-except-what-women-know/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But let the wise be warned against too great readiness at explanation: it multiplies the sources of mistake, lengthening the sum for reckoners sure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-let-the-wise-be-warned-against-too-great-readiness-at-explanation/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But any one watching keenly the stealthy convergence of human lots, sees a slow preparation of effects from one life on another, which tells…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-any-one-watching-keenly-the-stealthy-convergence-of-human-lots/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Perspective, as its inventor remarked, is a beautiful thing. What horrors of damp huts, where human beings languish, may not become picturesque through aerial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/perspective-as-its-inventor-remarked-is-a-beautiful-thing-what/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Sane people did what their neighbours did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/sane-people-did-what-their-neighbours-did-so-that-if-any-lunatics/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [even those who call themselves 'intimate' know very little about each other - hardly ever know just how a sorrow is felt, and hurt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/even-those-who-call-themselves-intimate-know-very-little-about-each/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) [Explore all 1,492 George Eliot quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) ## More Autumn quotes > [This, at last, was where things were as they ought to be. Everything was in its place -- the tree, the earth underneath, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-liedloff/this-at-last-was-where-things-were-as-they-ought-to-be-everything-was/) [Jean Liedloff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-liedloff/) > [The American spring is by no means so agreeable as the American autumn; both move with faltering step, and slow; but this lingering pace,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frances-trollope/the-american-spring-is-by-no-means-so-agreeable-as-the-american/) [Frances Trollope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frances-trollope/) > [“Flowers that had bloomed brilliant from spring through autumn blackened under the killing frost.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nora-roberts/flowers-that-had-bloomed-brilliant-from-spring-through-autumn/) [Nora Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nora-roberts/) > [“FALL I've never liked orange not even a hint of yellow though that doesn't mean I'm derange, you know. but it's still a riddle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kynna-claire/fall-i-ve-never-liked-orange-not-even-a-hint-of-yellow-though-that/) Kynna Claire > [The trees change their voices in autumn as well as their shapes. No longer do they whisper to one another in muffled tones as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patience-strong/the-trees-change-their-voices-in-autumn-as-well-as-their-shapes-no/) [Patience Strong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patience-strong/) > [The measured blood beats out the year's delay.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louise-bogan/the-measured-blood-beats-out-the-year-s-delay/) [Louise Bogan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louise-bogan/) > [You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/you-know-how-this-is-if-i-look-at-the-crystal-moon-at-the-red-branch/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-crickets-felt-it-was-their-duty-to-warn-everybody-that-summertime/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/he-found-himself-wondering-at-times-especially-in-the-autumn-about/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Easter blessings All life’s sacrifices like autumn leaves awaken our senses and power to love and be whole Our Mother Earth, Our Father Sky…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ramon-ravenswood/easter-blessings-all-life-s-sacrifices-like-autumn-leaves-awaken-our/) [Ramon Ravenswood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ramon-ravenswood/) > [The lush green of the fields became a rich gold that swayed sturdily under the wind and fell at last before the hands of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-ostenso/the-lush-green-of-the-fields-became-a-rich-gold-that-swayed-sturdily/) [Martha Ostenso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-ostenso/) > [The ascent of any route begins, in dreams at least, the autumn before. Our minds ring, involuntarily, with the alluring names of mountains, aiguilles,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-rebuffat/the-ascent-of-any-route-begins-in-dreams-at-least-the-autumn-before/) [Gaston Rebuffat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-rebuffat/) > [“Autumn eats its leaf out of my hand: we are friends. From the nuts we shell time and we teach it to walk: then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-celan/autumn-eats-its-leaf-out-of-my-hand-we-are-friends-from-the-nuts-we/) [Paul Celan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-celan/) > [While cares will drop off like autumn leaves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-muir/while-cares-will-drop-off-like-autumn-leaves/) [John Muir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-muir/) > [We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mao-zedong/we-must-learn-to-do-economic-work-from-all-who-know-how-no-matter-who/) [Mao Zedong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mao-zedong/) [Browse all 1,210 Autumn quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. 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! 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