In Celebration of Summer: Songs, Quotes & Photos

Summer Quotes, Songs & Photos to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

What do I love about summer? I love that time passes as slowly and sweetly as honey. I love the way that the world looks when it’s drenched in golden light. I love falling asleep to the steady drone of cicadas and frogs. I love reading in my hammock on lazy summer afternoons. I love the smell of homegrown tomatoes and strawberries (and the taste, it goes without saying!). I love the feeling of sand getting pulled out from beneath my feet at the edge of the ocean.

This post is in honor of summer’s ability to make relaxation a virtue. I’ve handcrafted the perfect summer playlist for every road trip throughout the season. I also curated a selection of summer photos (mine) and summer quotes (not mine) that capture summer’s spirit perfectly. Let me know which summer quotes, photos & songs are your favorites—and enjoy your summer!

F. Scott Fitzgerald:

“With the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Roman Payne:

“Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fanlike petals on eternal soil. Overall, I was happiest to be alone; for it was then I was most aware of what I possessed. Free to look out over the rooftops of the city. Happy to be alone in the company of friends, the company of lovers and strangers. Everything, I decided, in this life, was pure pleasure.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Alison Croggon:

“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.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Erik Tomblin:

“The morning heat had already soaked through the walls, rising up from the floor like a ghost of summers past.”

Dan Simmons:

“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.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Deb Caletti:

“Summer, after all, is a time when wonderful things can happen to quiet people. For those few months, you’re not required to be who everyone thinks you are, and that cut-grass smell in the air and the chance to dive into the deep end of a pool give you a courage you don’t have the rest of the year. You can be grateful and easy, with no eyes on you, and no past. Summer just opens the door and lets you out.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Anna Godbersen:

“How effervescent and free we all felt that summer. Everything fades: the shimmer of gold over White Cove; the laughter in the night air; the lavender early morning light on the faces of skyscrapers, which had suddenly become so heroically tall. Every dawn seemed to promise fresh miracles.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

John Lubbock:

“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.”

Shanti:

“At the end of the day your feet should be dirty, your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

John Keats:

“I almost wish we were butterflies and lived but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Natalie Babbitt:

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of the 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. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Adriana Trigiani:

“Summers were always our favorite times; we would eat outdoors under the shade of a tree. After having our fill of food and laughter, we’d pluck ripe figs right off the trees, peel and eat them until the sun disappeared into the blue. I can still taste those summer days, and will always do everything in my power to re-create them.”

Giovanna Fletcher:

“I love the arrival of a new season—each one bringing with it its own emotion: Spring is full of hope; summer is freedom; autumn is a colourful release, and winter brings an enchanting peace. It’s hard to pick which one I enjoy the most—each time the new one arrives, I remember its beauty and forget the previous one whose qualities have started to dim.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Haruki Murakami:

“The whiff of ocean on the southern breeze and the smell of burning asphalt brought back memories of summers past. It had seemed as though those sweet dreams of summer would last forever: the warmth of a girl’s skin, an old rock ‘n’ roll song, a freshly washed button-down shirt, the odor of cigarette smoke in a pool changing room, a fleeting premonition.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Carew Papritz:

“The sun. The heat. The thousand echoes of a timelessness before time, when every day seems longer than the next and no day seems likely to ever truly end.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Fredrik Sjöberg:

“Every summer there are a number of nights, not many, but a number, when everything is perfect. The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong, the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?”

Ray Bradbury:

“The cicadas sang louder and yet louder. The sun did not rise, it overflowed.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Ada Louise Huxtable:

“Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Gertrude Jekyll:

“What is one to say about June? The time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Nayyirah Waheed:

“If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

L.M. Montgomery:

“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer—one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going—one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

John F. Kennedy:

“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back from whence we came.”

Summer Quotes & More Ways to Celebrate the Season | Feather & Flint

Which summer quotes, photos & songs best capture the season’s beauty, in your opinion? What are your favorite ways to celebrate the season? What are you most looking forward to now that the weather’s warming up? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. For more gorgeous summer photos, check out my summer-inspired Pinterest board below!

Feather & Flint: Summer Inspiration Pinterest Board

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Robin

Robin Young is the writer and photographer behind Feather & Flint.

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40 Comments

  1. Alissa

    July 5, 2017

    We just went to the farmers market this weekend and grabbed some blueberries and peaches! They always taste so much better in the summer!
    notokthatsokcoach.com

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      They seriously do!! I love taking photos at the farmer’s market in the summer when everything’s so fresh and vibrant!

  2. Lecy | A Simpler Grace

    July 5, 2017

    I love seeing what’s on other people’s playlists! I’m definitely feeling summer now, thanks to you! 🙂

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Yay, I’m so happy to hear that – thanks so much, Lecy! 🙂

  3. Anna

    July 5, 2017

    I love the photos! What camera do you use? Also i’ll have to check out that playlist!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thanks so much, Anna! I use a Canon Eos Rebel and my iPhone 7+! It’s crazy what iPhones can do these days!

  4. Amanda @ The Light Owl

    July 5, 2017

    You have great taste in music! I love some of the throwback songs you included on your playlist. Love your summer vibes 🙂

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thank you so much, Amanda! There’s nothing better than a little Motown to brighten up your day 😉

  5. the sophia diaries

    July 5, 2017

    I am totally loooving this compilation <3 The quotes are very inspiring <3

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Yay, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you 🙂

  6. Rachel

    July 5, 2017

    All of these quotes and photos make my heart so happy!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      So glad you enjoyed the post! Thanks for reading, Rachel 🙂

  7. Jessica Wagner

    July 6, 2017

    I love this post so much! Summer is my all-time favorite season and all of these quotes brought so much joy to my ever-summer heart!! We have been spending so much time up at the lake and all of these capture that feeling that is so hard to describe! Loves it!! Xo

    https://www.theweekenderafashionfieldguide.com/

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      YAY, that makes me so happy!! I’m so glad you felt like these captured what you love about summer–I felt the same way. Enjoy your favorite season! 🙂

  8. Corey | The Nostalgia Diaries

    July 6, 2017

    Quotes and good music and beautiful pictures and summer?! I’m in heaven!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Bahaha I’m so glad!! Thanks for reading, Corey 🙂

  9. Kim

    July 6, 2017

    ‘The picture of the harbor with the red building is in Rockport, MA, not far from where I live. It’s called Motif #1….such a summery picture in a beautiful town.

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Ahh, I’m so jealous that you live so close to Rockport–it’s one of my favorite places to visit in the summer, but I’m about an hour and a half away! Such a gorgeous town–I love Gloucester, too.

  10. Divya

    July 7, 2017

    I love that Death Cab song so much!
    I’m going to be listening to these songs on Spotify at work today! Thanks for the suggestions <3

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Yay, so happy to hear that!! Hope it made your day 1000% better 🙂

  11. Kristin Cook

    July 7, 2017

    I really like that John Lubbock quote- beautiful!
    And I really love celebrating the different seasons. Each one has a lot of beauty and though Fall is my favorite, I enjoy them all!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Isn’t that a good one?! It’s what inspired me to put this list together, actually!
      And I feel the same way–fall will always be closest to my heart, but each season has so many wonderful things about it that I make sure I appreciate every year. 🙂

  12. Bobbi

    July 7, 2017

    Great collection of quotes!! And I love the images also!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thank you so much, Bobbi! I had so much fun putting them all together 🙂

  13. Trish

    July 7, 2017

    I LOVE that Fitzgerald quote. It is beautiful and describes my feelings about summer perfectly. Also — great playlist! Wonderful variety of music and songs. I especially like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — great classic Motown.

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thank you so much, Trish – that makes me so happy to hear!! I love Motown, too – we played a ton of it at our wedding, and everyone had a ball!

  14. Chelsea Rose

    July 7, 2017

    This just put me in the best mood! I’m going to have this Playlist on repeat! And I can’t pick my favorite quote, they are ask great!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      YAY, I’m so glad to hear that!! Thanks for reading (and listening), Chelsea 🙂

  15. Alexandra | The Happy Life Formula

    July 7, 2017

    What a fun idea to do a summery round-up of quotes and gorgeous pictures! It’s making me feel super summery even on this rainy day here in NYC.

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Same here in Boston – looking at these pictures makes me forget it’s cloudy and weirdly humid outside, hahah! So glad you enjoyed it – thanks for reading, Alexandra 🙂

  16. Yolanda

    July 7, 2017

    Your summer playlist put me in a serious good mood this morning and set me up for a happy day. Great tunes, in which I’ll be adding many to my wedding playlists tonight. Thanks 🙂

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      It made my day reading this! I wish I could get married again so I could use this playlist – so many of these songs didn’t exist when I got married in 2014, but I put so much work into making the perfect playlist with a similar vibe! Music can really tie the whole day together in an amazing way.

  17. Felicia

    July 7, 2017

    I am definitely a quote junkie especially in the summer! Summers are super hard for me.

    xx
    The Felicia Renee | a minimalist lifestyle & beauty blog

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Summers can be hard to appreciate when they’re hot and humid, but these quotes all remind me to pay attention to the feeling of freedom I always felt when I was a kid! Thanks for reading, Felicia 🙂

  18. Megan

    July 7, 2017

    I enjoyed this post so much. Quotes make so so unbelievably happy and these were such beautiful ones. Thanks for sharing!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      That makes me so happy, Megan!! So glad you came across my post and enjoyed it so much – happy summer 🙂

  19. Cara

    July 8, 2017

    What a great post! All these images are stunning and I love the playlist! A lot of those songs are new to me so can’t wait to listen. Happy weekend!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thanks so much, Cara!! I hope you love it 🙂 And happy weekend to you, too!

  20. Ashley

    July 8, 2017

    This post put me in such a great mood! You need to repost this every summer!

    • Robin

      July 8, 2017

      Thank you so much, Ashley – it makes me so happy to know you loved it! I’ll be sure to do that 🙂

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