October Quotes | 2024

Welcome to Monday, friends. I hope you were able to find some time for the things you love over the weekend. Mine was full of baking and cleaning, with a small helping of reading. I went on walks, alone and with an assortment of the children. Over all — it was the best weekend possible given the circumstances.

As many of you know, I’ve started writing down quotes in my notebook. I’d planned to only do it in September but it became such a fun habit that I kept going in October (and November so far). When I shared a flip through of my September journal, I got some questions about the quotes so I shared them all here. And since then, I’ve realized how helpful it is to have all of them typed up and in one place, so today I’m sharing my quotes from October.

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Just a quick note: last month Juliann reminded me not to trust what I read on the internet and make sure I’m crediting the right person for each quote. It’s a great reminder! But be warned, I haven’t done an extra check on these quotes. So if you’re planning to use these for your own blog or for a craft project, please don’t trust me. Just enter the quote into your own trusted search engine and see what comes out.

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October 1: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

October 2: “This is time for us. Memory. A nostalgia.” Carlo Rovelli (I believe I pulled this from Kat’s blog, but I didn’t write that in my notebook? Sorry, Kat!)

October 3: “September slipped by into a golden crimson graciousness of October.” LM Montgomery

October 4: “We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will… Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” Simone Weil via Stoneyard Devotion

October 5: “Life is not like water. Things in life don’t necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.” Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

October 6: “Profound loneliness of the soul.” Virginia Woolf

October 7: “I’m out with lanterns, looking for myself.” Emily Dickinson

October 8: “These October days are to me a little strained and surrounded with silence.” Virginia Wool Diaries

October 9: “When I was young, I didn’t know other people were like me, beautiful and awful, kind and insane.” Anne Lamott

October 10: “What do you do from morning to night? I endure myself.” Emil Croran, The Trouble with Being Born

October 11: “I dream too much.” Sylvia Plath

October 12: “Well, this world is a school and we are its students. Each of us studies something as we pass through.” p43, There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

October 13: “Words are like birds… When you publish books, you are setting caged birds free.” p103, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

October 14: “Books, like paper lanterns, provide us with a light amidst the fog.” p110, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

October 15: “If you only knew, it takes a fierce fight inside to remain peaceful on the outside.” p183, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

October 16: “the October night, calm and lovely, with a star or two caught into the yellowing trees.” A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf

October 17: “I will dream, I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim – this fine October.” Virginia Woolf

October 18: “And everything is soft and vague and very sad.” Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf

October 19: “A poem is a swallow in flight. You can watch it soar through the infinite sky, you can even feel the wind passing over its wings, but you can never catch it, let alone keep it in a cage.” p373, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

October 20: “I am no poet, my friend. I am just a devoted reader.” p442, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak (actually spoken twice in this novel by two different characters, centuries apart. But I didn’t document the first time!)

October 21: “Home is where your loved ones are, but the reverse is also true. Those you love are your sanctuary, your shelter, your country, and even, when it comes to that, your exile. Wherever you go, they will follow.” p257, There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak

October 22: “I wish you were here. The days and the nights are beautiful as only Autumn can be.” Vita Sackville-West

October 23: “He asked if I was feeling sad. I told him that this was simply the way I was.” Clarice Lispector

October 24: “So soft, so melancholy, so wild.” Virginia Woolf

October 25: “You said I killed you – haunt me, then! Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you.” Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

October 26: “Please – consider me a dream.” Franz Kafka

October 27: “‘Stay angry, little Meg,’ Mrs. Whatsit whispered. ‘You will need all your anger now.'” A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle

October 28: “There is no revolution without joy.” p113, The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley

October 29: “Everything that has ever been could have been prevented, and none of it was. The only thing you can mend is the future.” p207, The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley

October 30: “He was here, by and with and in my body. He lives in me like trauma does. If you ever fall in love, you’ll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life.” p246, The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley

October 31: “Forgiveness, which takes you back to the person you were and lets you reset them. Hope, which exists in a future in which you are new. Forgiveness and hope are miracles. They let you change your life. They are time-travel.” p332, The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley

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Typing these out, I can see how inspired I was by There Are Rivers in the Sky and The Ministry of Time. I can also see how a layer of melancholy was already beginning to settle over me, which helps put my current mood into slightly better perspective. I’ve also been thankful for friends texting, emailing, commenting, and conversations in Discord that continue to remind me that we’re not alone.

I hope your Monday is the best possible and that you find time for the things you love. Take good care!