“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” No, wait. Wrong Charles Dickens quote. Or possibly not. I tend to mildly mangle all those quotes about the month of March.

The first one I learned was pinned in construction paper letters on a bulletin board in the Monroe Elementary School hallway: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”

While we wait for the big cat’s roar to fade into a sheep’s mild baa-baa, let’s listen in on what else the great philosophers have said about this third month of the year.

“February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.” — J.R. Stockton

“April Fool (noun): The March fool with another month added to his folly.” — Ambrose Bierce

“March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.” — Garrison Keillor

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” — Charles Dickens

“Poor March. It is the homeliest month of the year. Most of it is mud, every imaginable form of mud, and what isn’t mud in March is ugly late-season snow falling onto the ground in filthy muddy heaps that look like piles of dirty laundry.” — Vivian Swift

“March is a month of considerable frustration; it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away.” — Thalassa Cruso

“Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” — Lewis Grizzard

“In March, winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.” — Jean Hersey

“My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again.” — Tracy Chevalier

“Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of his instruments, not the composer.” — Geoffrey Charlesworth

“Beware the Ides of March.” — William Shakespeare (and the seer Spurinna to Julius Caesar)

BONUS QUOTES

Since St. Patrick’s Day falls in the middle of March, here are a couple thoughts for those of us with a dab or two of the Irish blood:

“You’ve got to think lucky. If you fall into a mudhole, check your back pocket — you might have caught a fish.” — Darrell Royal

“That’s what the holidays are for — for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn’t that the Irish way?” — Lara Flynn Boyle

“May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow. And may trouble avoid you wherever you go.” — Irish blessing

“May your troubles be less. And your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door.” — Irish blessing

That’s it. Have a joyous March. And remember, “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.” — English proverb.

• Send your March quotes to Cole at burtseye view@tribtoday.com, the Burton W. Cole page on Facebook or @Burton WCole on Twitter.