Today is the first day of Fall 2016. Yes, we officially get to say goodbye to one of the hottest summers on record.

The autumnal equinox is today, and that’s the official signal for fall to start.

“An equinox is when the Earth is tilted so that the sun will appear directly overhead at noon at the equator,” rerports AL.com. “Day and night will be approximately equal in length. The equinox will happen at the same moment worldwide, and that will be at 9:21 a.m CDT Thursday.”

And, now that we are celebrating fall 2016, here are some stirring quotes from literature to celebrate the day by.

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

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”  ― Henry David Thoreau

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground.” ― Andrea Gibson

“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” ― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”[Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

“That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.” ― Ray Bradbury

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

“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 leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.” ― Henry Beston