20 Rain Quotes That Hold Up
Rain quotes exist because rain is the one kind of weather that reliably ruins a plan, and people need something to say about it.
The best ones were written by people who were outside in it rather than watching it through a window, which is the difference between a line that sounds nice and a line that is accurate.
These are grouped by what you need them for — a cancelled day, a wet trail, the hour after it stops.
Quotes for a Rainy Day
For the day that got rearranged.
“Into each life some rain must fall.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Rainy Day,” 1842
“Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; behind the clouds is the sun still shining.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Rainy Day,” 1842
“The best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, 1863
“The rain it raineth every day.” — William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, circa 1602
Beautiful Rain Quotes
The ones written as description rather than consolation.
“Let the rain kiss you; let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.” — Langston Hughes, “April Rain Song,” 1921
“The rain to the wind said, ‘You push and I’ll pelt.'” — Robert Frost, “Lodged,” 1928
“In the midst of a gentle rain, while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
“Rain makes a forest sound smaller than it is.”
Short Deep Rain Quotes
Old, short, and not about weather at all.
“He sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” — Matthew 5:45
“It never rains but it pours.” — proverb
“Rain does not fall on one roof alone.” — proverb
“The sound of rain needs no translation.”
Motivational Rain Quotes
These are the ones for deciding to go anyway.
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” — Alfred Wainwright, A Coast to Coast Walk, 1973
“Waiting for perfect weather is how you spend a year indoors.”
“Nobody drowns in a shower.”
After Rain Quotes
The hour after it stops is the best hour of the day outdoors, and most of these are really about that.
“After rain comes fair weather.” — proverb
“April showers bring May flowers.” — traditional saying
“The trail smells better wet, and so does everything above it.”
“Everything looks washed because it is.”
Raindrops Quotes
“Every river was raindrops first.”
“A drop on a leaf holds the whole sky upside down.”
“Rain arrives one drop at a time, which is also how it moves a mountain.”
Why Rain Is Worth Going Out In
The smell after rain has a name, petrichor, and it comes from plant oils and a soil bacteria compound called geosmin that gets kicked into the air by falling drops.
Human noses are unusually sensitive to geosmin — more sensitive than sharks are to blood — which is why the smell registers so strongly for something present in tiny amounts.
Rain also empties trails, quiets birds and then brings them back louder, and turns creek crossings into actual decisions, so a wet hike is a different hike rather than a worse one.
The limiting factor is almost always clothing rather than willingness, and a real waterproof breathable hiking rain jacket is the whole difference between staying out and turning around.
On the Big Sur coast this matters more than most places, since the wet season runs November through March and the fog does a decent impression of rain the rest of the year.
If you are collecting lines for photos taken in that weather, the Big Sur captions list is built for grey coastal days, and why camping trips help you recharge covers what the time outside is actually doing.
FAQ
What is the best short rain quote?
“Into each life some rain must fall” is the most useful short one and it has a solid source. For a caption where nothing dramatic happened, an unattributed line usually fits better than a famous one.
Who said “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”?
Alfred Wainwright wrote “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing” in A Coast to Coast Walk in 1973. The wording gets changed constantly and it is also credited to Scandinavian and Scottish proverbs, but Wainwright is the traceable printed source.
Is “sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing” really John Ruskin?
It is credited to him everywhere and no one has produced the book or letter it comes from. It is left out here for that reason.
Why do so many rain quotes have no author?
Because rain quotes get shared as images, and image captions lose their sources fast. Several of the most popular ones are attributed to three different people depending on which site you land on.
What is the smell after rain called?
Petrichor. The term was coined by two Australian scientists in 1964 for the oils released from rocks and soil when rain hits dry ground.
