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Quotations for Groundhog Day
Related Quotes Weather Winter Spring February
Welcome to my page of quotations for Groundhog Day. Over the years I've spent so many hours digging around (ha!) lots in old books trying to find as many quotable references to the day as I can and I've managed to unearth (giggle) quite the collection of vintage verses and excerpts, with a few modern ones as well. Okay, ready to get to the quotes? Gopher it!
The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears. ~Bill Vaughn
Old Groundhog stretched in his leafy bed.
He turned over slowly and then he said,
"I wonder if spring is on the way,
I'll go and check the weather today..."
~Author Unknown, "Groundhog Day"
To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring. ~W.J. Vogel
Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
~Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick Young
Though the groundhog and crocus creep into their holes
It's Spring, and the almanac shows it;
Though a polar wave over the continent rolls
It's Spring! And we don't care who knows it!
~Robert J. Burdette, "March," c.1888
One Swallow maketh not Summer; nor one Woodcock a Winter. ~William Camden, Remains, 1605
If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another fight;
But if Candlemas Day be clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again.
~Old Rhyme
Yesterday was "ground-hog's day" in many parts of the United States, and Candlemas day in many other parts of the world. From time immemorial, it has been a critical day in the affairs of the weather. The character of the second of February is really of much more importance than whether the first of March comes in like a lion or a lamb. The simplest form of the adage is:—
If Candlemas day be bright and clear,
There'll be two winters in that year.
~Hartford Courant, 1877 February 3rd
The hedge-rows cast a shallow shade
Upon the frozen grass,
But skies at evening song are soft,
And comes the Candlemas.
Each day a little later now
Lingers the westering sun;
Far out of sight the miracles
Of April are begun.
O barren bough! O frozen field!
Hopeless ye wait no more.
Life keeps her dearest promises—
The Spring is at the door!
~Arthur Ketchum, The Atlantic Monthly, February 1904
Groundhog Day
Winter's grip's broken, the sun swings north!
~David J. Beard (1947–2016), tweet, 2015 February 2nd
If ground-hog day was bright and fair,
The beast came forth, but not to stay;
His shadow turned him to his lair,
Where six weeks more, he dormant lay
Secure in subterranean hold—
So wondrous weatherwise was he—
Against six weeks of ice and cold,
Which, very certain, there would be...
~H.L. Fisher, "Popular Superstitions," Olden Times: or, Pennsylvania Rural Life, Some Fifty Years Ago, and Other Poems, 1888
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ~George Santayana
Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. ~Kin Hubbard
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb
Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne
Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" ~Robin Williams
Everybody who knew anything about ciphering was called in to consider it. A young man from a high school near here, who made a specialty of mathematics and pimples, and who could readily tell how long a shadow a nine-pound ground-hog would cast at 2 o'clock and 37 minutes P.M., on ground-hog day, if sunny, at the town of Fungus, Dak., provided latitude and longitude and an irregular mass of red chalk be given to him, was secured to jerk a few logarithms in the interests of trade. He came and tried it for a few days, covered the interior of the Exposition Building with figures and then went away. ~Bill Nye, "Seeking to be Identified," Nye and Riley's Railway Guide by Edgar W. Nye and James Whitcomb Riley, 1888
In America, paying due deference to the creature's importance is our national mythology, it is left to the ground-hog to decide the day, and so the fate of the season. He is supposed to come out of his hole on that day, and take a look at the world. If it is a bright day, he will see his shadow on the ground, and, taking fright at it, will run back into his home and stay there. A fresh attack of winter will set in, and he will be justified in the steps he has taken. If it is cloudy, he will cast no shadow, take no fright, and gives us no further attack of winter. ~Hartford Courant, 1877 February 3rd
Whereas, Today, the 2nd day of February, is the genuine, original and undisputed ground-hog day of our ancestors, handed down to posterity for many generations; and
Whereas, the same has not been legally recognized by any legislative enactment appearing on our Statutes; and
Whereas, We consider it almost an unpardonable oversight in the party which has for so many years administered the affairs of this State; therefore, be it
Resolved, That we, the representative men of this State, filled with patriotism and love for the prognosticator of the weather, recognize this day as "Ground-hog day," and that legal enactment should fix the date, the 2nd of February, which shall forever remain without defalcation or discount, as Ground-hog day, never to be changed by constitutional amendments or acts of any Legislature of this State.
~Journal of the House of Representatives of the 38th General Assembly (Regular Session) of the State of Missouri, Twenty-Fifth Day, Saturday, February 2, 1895
It's a freakin' holiday entirely based on the power of a psychic rodent. If that isn't the epitome of awesome, I don't know what is. ~Flying LlamaFish, "7 Reasons Groundhog Day is the Ultimate Holiday," 2010, PunIntended.com
In European folk-lore, the bear is the Candlemas weather-prophet. ~John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, 1877
Look, friends, don't you see a swallow? The herald of spring. ~Aristophanes, 424 B.C. ["One swallow will not make spring, nor one bee honey," says the old proverb. It derives from Aesop's fable of The Spendthrift and the Swallow. "A few warm days in winter brought a swallow from its hiding-place, and a young prodigal seeing it, sold his cloack and spent the proceeds in riotous living. But the frost returned, and he discovered, to his sorrow that 'one swallow does not make summer.'" Per Burton E. Stevenson.
One fair day in winter makes not birds merry. ~George Herbert, c.1640
Every mile is two in winter. ~George Herbert
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. ~Doug Larson
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book
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Last modified 2016 Jun 20 Mon 17:33 PDT
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