May Sayings and Quotes

May is synonymous with the gifts of spring: flowers and good weather. After the storm, comes the sunshine. Celebrate spring and new beginnings with the collection of insightful May quotes below.

May, thou month of rosy beauty, / Month, when pleasure is a duty ; / Month of maids that milk the kine, / Bosom rich, and breath divine ; James Henry Leigh Hunt
My heart is light with May, with May, / My heart is light with May ! / The sky is soft ; the coming birds / Are silent on their way. Mary Mapes Dodge
Hebe's here, May is here ! / The air is fresh and sunny ; / And the miser-bees are busy / Hoarding golden honey ! Thomas Bailey Aldrich
’Twas May ! the spring with magic bloom / Leaped up from winter’s frozen tomb. Alfred Billings Street
What can better please, / When your mind is well at ease, / Than a walk among the green fields in May ? / To see the verdure new, / And to hear the loud cuckoo, / While sunshine makes the whole world gay ? William Allingham
O lady mine with the sunlit hair, / The rills are glad that the month is May : / The dawns are bright, and the eves are fair / O'er the grassy aisles of the orchard way. Clinton Scollard
Each day of thine, sweet month of May, / Love makes a solemn holy-day. / I will perform like duty, / Sith thou resemblest every way / Astraea, queen of beauty. Sir John Davies
The earth is waking at the voice of May, / The new grass brightens by the trodden way, / The woods wave welcome to the sweet spring day, / And the sea is growing summer blue ; Elizabeth Ann Allen
I incline to think that the elders [ maiores ] gave their own name to the month of May: they considered the interests of their own class. . . . No slight proof of the proposed honour is furnished by the next month, the month of June, which is named after young men [ juvenes ]. Ovid
May is a perfect time to be in Tuscany — a time when it’s still not too hot for a contessa to spend some time next to the pool, gazing approvingly over the vineyards that surround her. Calvin Trillin
May is a green as no other, / May is much sun through small leaves, / May is soft earth, / And apple-blossoms, / And windows open to a South wind. Amy Lowell
Ne'er cast a clout till May be out. English Proverb
There are twelve months in all the year, / As I hear many men say, / But the merriest month in all the year / Is the merry month of May. Ballads
Ask me no more whither doth haste / The nightingale when May is past; / For in your sweet dividing throat / She winters and keeps warm her note. Thomas Carew
So many mists in March, so many frosts in May. English Proverb
And she was fayr as is the rose in May. Geoffrey Chaucer
Ambassadors cropped up like hay, / Prime Ministers and such as they / Grew like asparagus in May, / And dukes were three a penny. W.S. Gilbert
Marry in May, rue for aye. English Proverb
Bolh of us looked on the world as a meadow in May — a meadow traversed by women and horses. Isaac Babel
More matter for a May morning. William Shakespeare
But it’s a long, long while / From May to December; / And the days grow short / When you reach September. Maxwell Anderson
Love, whose month is ever May. William Shakespeare
The cuckoo comes in April, / He sings his song in May; / In the middle of June He changes his tune, / And then he flies away. English Proverb
Eat leeks in March and ramsons in May, and all the year after physicians may play. Welsh Proverb
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth English Proverb
A warm January, a cold May. Welsh Proverb
Sell in May and go away (come back on St Leger's day). English Proverb
He that would live for aye, must eat sage in May. Latin Proverb
He has plunged the country into the abyss of December for fear of a shower in May. French Proverb
A lily of a day / Is fairer far in May; / Although it fall and die that night, / It was the plant and flower of light. Ben Jonson