--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: If eternity had a season, it would be…" description: "\"If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised...." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fb/ursula-k-le-guin-138_autumn_if-eternity-had-a-season-it-would-be-mid_1608304.jpg" --- # If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn… ![“If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised. It's only a passing moment, but even as it passes the heart knows it cannot change.” quote by Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fb/ursula-k-le-guin-138_autumn_if-eternity-had-a-season-it-would-be-mid_1608304.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fb/ursula-k-le-guin-138_autumn_if-eternity-had-a-season-it-would-be-mid_1608304.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4fb/ursula-k-le-guin-138_autumn_if-eternity-had-a-season-it-would-be-mid_1608304.jpg) > “If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised. It's only a passing moment, but even as it passes the heart knows it cannot change.” [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Summer represents a fleeting peak of intensity before change, reminding us that moments of stability are temporary and must be cherished. **In simple terms:** Summer is a brief, intense moment before change. Key Takeaway Savor the present. Themes transience impermanence appreciation Mood reflective nostalgic Type literary inspirational When to use this quote - vacation - career peak - personal achievements - creative projects Key Concepts temporality ephemerality mindfulness Questions to Reflect On - How do you balance enjoying now with preparing for change? - What moments feel like “summer” in your life? A Different Perspective Focusing too much on the present can neglect future planning. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Autumn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/autumn/) [Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/) [Eternity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eternity/) [Flower](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flower/) [Heart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/heart/) [Midsummer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/midsummer/) [Moments](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/moments/) [Spring](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spring/) [Summer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/summer/) [Winter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/winter/) ## Related quotes > [Never anything can be amiss, when simpleness and duty tender it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/never-anything-can-be-amiss-when-simpleness-and-duty-tender-it/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/but-earthlier-happy-is-the-rose-distill-d-than-that-which-withering/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,--at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/we-often-love-to-think-now-of-the-life-of-men-on-beaches-at-least-in/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“He folded into my arms. I buried my face in his hair, and I listened to the sounds of midsummer on my island. Gorse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harper-fox/he-folded-into-my-arms-i-buried-my-face-in-his-hair-and-i-listened-to/) [Harper Fox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harper-fox/) > [“I awoke in the Midsummer not to call night, in the white and the walk of the morning: The moon, dwindled and thinned to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerard-manley-hopkins/i-awoke-in-the-midsummer-not-to-call-night-in-the-white-and-the-walk/) [Gerard Manley Hopkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerard-manley-hopkins/) > [Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/is-not-disease-the-rule-of-existence-there-is-not-a-lily-pad-floating/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [“On a midsummer night, on a night that was eerie with stars, In a wood too deep for a single star to look through,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-teasdale/on-a-midsummer-night-on-a-night-that-was-eerie-with-stars-in-a-wood/) [Sara Teasdale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-teasdale/) > [Such tricks hath strong imagination, That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/such-tricks-hath-strong-imagination-that-if-it-would-but-apprehend/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [“there was yet, it then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store; and meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herman-melville/there-was-yet-it-then-seemed-to-me-many-a-pleasant-haven-in-store-and/) [Herman Melville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herman-melville/) > [“All's well that ends well.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/all-s-well-that-ends-well/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [To show our simple skill, That is the true beginning of our end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/to-show-our-simple-skill-that-is-the-true-beginning-of-our-end/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [“And perhaps one day, in after years, someone would wander there and listen to the silence, as she had done, and catch the whisper…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daphne-du-maurier/and-perhaps-one-day-in-after-years-someone-would-wander-there-and/) [Daphne du Maurier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daphne-du-maurier/) > [Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/things-base-and-vile-holding-no-quantity-love-can-transpose-to-form/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [Old age likes to dwell in the recollections of the past, and, mistaking, the speedy march of years, often is inclined to take the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lajos-kossuth/old-age-likes-to-dwell-in-the-recollections-of-the-past-and-mistaking/) [Lajos Kossuth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lajos-kossuth/) > [“The day succeeding this remarkable Midsummer night, proved no common day. I do not mean that it brought signs in heaven above, or portents…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charlotte-bronte/the-day-succeeding-this-remarkable-midsummer-night-proved-no-common/) [Charlotte Brontë](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charlotte-bronte/) ## More by Ursula K. Le Guin > [“...I wore his blood for clothing, on my legs and thighs and hands: a dry, stiff, brown garment with no warmth in it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-wore-his-blood-for-clothing-on-my-legs-and-thighs-and-hands-a-dry/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/translation-is-entirely-mysterious-increasingly-i-have-felt-that-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Aeneas' mother is a star?" "No; a goddess." I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/aeneas-mother-is-a-star-no-a-goddess-i-said-cautiously-venus-is-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Meaning - this is perhaps the common note, the bane I am seeking. What is the Meaning of this book, this event in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/meaning-this-is-perhaps-the-common-note-the-bane-i-am-seeking-what-is/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/for-fantasy-is-true-of-course-it-isn-t-factual-but-it-is-true/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“. . . chronosophy does involve ethics. Because our sense of time involves our ability to separate cause and effect, means and end. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/chronosophy-does-involve-ethics-because-our-sense-of-time-involves/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“If both you and your plane are on time, the airport is merely a diffuse, short, miserable prelude to the intense, long, miserable plane…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/if-both-you-and-your-plane-are-on-time-the-airport-is-merely-a/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“The author is not impartial. Dystopia is not tragedy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/the-author-is-not-impartial-dystopia-is-not-tragedy/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the symbol be twisted aside, and the lie come to be.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/between-thought-and-spoken-word-is-a-gap-where-intention-can-enter/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [I have no control over my writing. I have lots of good intentions, but no control. There's a story that wants to be told.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-have-no-control-over-my-writing-i-have-lots-of-good-intentions-but/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“I did a lot today. That is, I did something. The only thing I have ever done. I pressed a button. It took the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-did-a-lot-today-that-is-i-did-something-the-only-thing-i-have-ever/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/to-me-the-female-principle-is-or-at-least-historically-has-been/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Hector had no virtue?” “Of course he did. He won all his battles, till the last one.” “We all do,” Aeneas remarked.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/hector-had-no-virtue-of-course-he-did-he-won-all-his-battles-till-the/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“I was willing to believe him that most modern writing was trash, on the evidence that so much old writing was trash; but I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/i-was-willing-to-believe-him-that-most-modern-writing-was-trash-on/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) > [“Can women operate as women in a male institution without becoming imitation men?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-k-le-guin/can-women-operate-as-women-in-a-male-institution-without-becoming/) [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) [Explore all 1,114 Ursula K. Le Guin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-k-le-guin/) ## 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": "If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised. It's only a passing moment, but even as it passes the heart knows it cannot change.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ursula K. 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