Nothing beats a good sunset photo – but it can be hard to put the majesty and mystery of a sunset into words. Thankfully, the authors, poets and philosophers behind these 101 sunset quotes and captions for sunset have done the hard work for us.
Whether it’s watching the sunset on the beach when you’re on vacation, or just catching a vanishing glimpse of the twilight sky from your kitchen window at home, there’s something stirring about seeing that big golden orb sink below the horizon, painting the sky a million shades.
It can be hard to capture the beauty of sunset in a photo – trust me, I try all the time! But when you do manage to get that perfect shot that represents the dancing light and vivid colours, you’re going to need the perfect sunset caption to go along with it.
The best thing about sunset quotes like these is that they’re almost as lovely as the sunset itself! Some use the setting sun as a metaphor for life and love, while others simply describe the light show. Some are romantic, others are tongue-in-cheek, and all are utterly inspiring.
Copy and paste these quotes to use in your social media update, or learn your favourite by heart to impress your sunset companion. Somewhere on this list I know you’ll find the perfect quote – as sure as the sun sets!
Also read:
- Inspirational hiking quotes
- The best solo travel quotes
- The best quotes about travelling with friends
- The best quotes about travelling with family
- Beautiful ways to wish someone a safe trip
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Short sunset captions for Instagram
These simple sunset captions for Instagram are ideal to accompany a quick social media update. After all, you don’t want to take your eyes off that beautiful sunset for too long!
They may be short and to the point, but each of these quotes is still poetic and full of meaning.
“Don’t forget: Beautiful sunsets need cloudy skies.” – Paulo Coelho
“A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night.” – Crystal Woods
“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When ballet takes to the sea, even the sunset comes to take a sneak peek.” – Anthony T. Hincks
“Every sunset is also a sunrise. It all depends on where you stand.” – Karl Schmidt
“Sunrise is the start of something beautiful: the day. Sunset is the start of something beautiful: the night.” – Juansen Dizon
”You know, when one is that sad, one can get to love the sunset.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“It’s not just a sunset; it’s a moonrise too.” – P. C. Cast
“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset.” – Richie Norton
“The sun set, which is everyday magic…” – Terry Pratchett
“Meanwhile the sunsets are mad orange fools raging in the gloom….” – Jack Kerouac
“A sunset paints the sky as if there were no tomorrow.” – Anthony T. Hincks
“Sunset is still my favourite colour, and rainbow is second.” – Mattie Stepanek
“It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.” – Bern Williams
“Sunsets are my escape into the reality I want to continuously live.” – Rachel Roy
“Softly the evening came with the sunset.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky.” – Philip Pullman
“If you are in a beautiful place where you can enjoy sunrise and sunset, then you are living like a lord.” – Nathan Phillips
“Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.” – S.E. Hinton
“The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.” – Pamela Hansford Johnson
“When your world moves too fast and you lose yourself in the chaos, introduce yourself to each colour of the sunset.” – Christy Ann Martine
“Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too.” – S.E. Hinton
“…the warm orange spreading from the horizon as not-quite-day, becomes not-quite-night.” – David Levithan
“You don’t need beautiful weather to enjoy the evening. You only need a beautiful heart.” – Biju Karakkonam
“They ran to the museums for paintings. I ran to the roof for sunsets.” – Darnell Lamont Walker
“But even the longest day wears to sunset.” – Marion Zimmer Bradley
“There is nothing more musical than a sunset.” – Claude Debussy
“The more clouds you have in your sky, the more colourful sunset it will be.” – Sajal Sazzad
“No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.” – Maya Angelou
“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.” – Richard Paul Evans
“There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day.” – Rachel Boston
“O, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.” – Roman Payne
“Sometimes the sunset is so beautiful, I think it might be the very last one.” – Nitya Prakash
“It’s that time between day and night when the sky looks like it’s on fire and mosquitoes are on the hunt.” – Angie Thomas
“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.” – George R.R. Martin
“A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn…” – Claude Debussy
“They sipped until the sun, as golden as syrupy as the bourbon, slipped into the sea.” – Delia Owens
“As the saturating colours of sun-life fade from sight, the ominous moon reaches out its long arm and applies the dark dyes of night.” – Daniel J. Rice
“I am not the rising star. I am the drowning sun.” – Pravin Gupta
“Sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully.” – Kristen Butler
“Never turn your back to the sunset, because you owe the sun a thanking for lighting you all day.” – Mehmet Murat İldan
“Moon in the sky, stars out, the wide-open expanse of nothing: it made him feel free and alive as the daytime never did.” – Chuck Wendig
“To capture a California sunset in South Pasadena is to hold an angel’s wings with bated breath.” – Ace Antonio Hall
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.” – Jo Walton
“A time when sky blue love bids farewell to the day and before dusk falls, the sunset ignites the smouldering embers of the moonlit soul…” – Virginia Alison
“Dawn and dusk are mutual friends of the sun; one opens the door for him to a brand new day and the other one has to shut it to embrace the darkness of night.” – Munia Khan
“I love sunrises and sunsets. But what I really love is the space that I have in-between them to do something incredible.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us.” – Khalil Gibran
Descriptive captions for sunset pictures
If you’re looking for a sunset caption that’s more descriptive, these next quotes conjure the colours of sunset and are even more poetic.
These authors have somehow managed to capture not only the visual beauty of sunset, but also the way it makes us feel. Cool breeze on your shoulders, mosquitoes humming in your ear – watching the sunset is often an immersive experience for all four sense.
Many of these quotes wax lyrical about the colours of the sunset – because a beautiful sunset is enough to bring out the poet in all of us! These snippets make good captions for sunsets.
“Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars.” – J.K. Rowling
“The redness had seeped from the day and night was arranging herself around us. Cooling things down, staining and dyeing the evening purple and blue black.” – Sue Monk Kidd
“Nightfall was approaching, the light pouring away past the world’s horizon in a gradually darkening cascade.” – Obie Williams
“The clouds had dispersed and for a change, the sun was visible in the west, a sinking ball of vodka and cranberry juice.” – Saurbh Katyal
“And like tea dissolving in hot water, the sun dissolved in the sky…creating a velvet horizon, announcing for the stars’ night dance with the moon, the awaited joy for the wounded souls.” – Abeer Allan
“The sun had set, but a faint pastel haze lingered in the mid-summer sky.” – R.J. Lawrence
“The sun is setting in a burnt orange sky; the cliffs are black silhouettes; the sea, liquid silver.” – Laura Treacy Bentley
“A slight breeze cooled the Hawaiian spring air, swaying the branches of palm trees, which cast black silhouettes against the purple and orange colours of the twilight sky.” – Victoria Kahler
“The sky, at sunset, looked like a carnivorous flower.” – Roberto Bolaño
“The sky was a bruised red shot with black, almost exactly the colours of a tattoo. Sunset had two minutes left to live.” – Denis Johnson
“An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.” – Herman Melville
“Outside, the air filled with cricket noise, as the sun reddened in its descent.” – R.J. Lawrence
“Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist.” – Mia Kirshner
“The stark evening sun at the far edge of the town had just unzipped the sky and finally gone down.” – Jack Bunbury
“Soon it got dusk, a grapey dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the colour of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the colour of love and Spanish mysteries.” – Jack Kerouac
“The sun was a fiery furnace of gold, but finally it set in the west and the cosmos glittered like a million burning embers, briefly reminding Awa of poetry readings under starry skies in Timbuktu.” – Rehan Khan
Romantic sunset quotes
And now for a few sunset love quotes! There’s no getting around it: Sunset is romantic to the core, and watching the sun go down with someone special is usually an experience that brings you closer together.
“Listen to the sunset, see its pretty hue. When you see it, think of me, and I’ll think of you…” – Oksana Rus
“The sun still lives his silent vows to the moon, by bowing to kiss her feet whenever she walks in the room.” – Curtis Tyrone Jones
“Sunsets are not a rare commodity they come and go every night, so I compare you not to a sunset for you come once in a life.” – Daniel Cook
“Whenever you want to see me, always look at the sunset; I will be there.” – Grace Ogot
“Tea is just an excuse. I am drinking this sunset, this evening. And you.” – Sanober Khan
“I can’t give you the sunset, but I can give you the night.” – Erin McCarthy
“I don’t know how long we stay that way, but we watch the sun go down together. The giant, burnt-orange sphere sinks towards the horizon, colouring the rock layers until it’s gone and the canyon is covered in shadow.” – Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
“Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are there cannot be one without the other yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel, I remember wondering, to be always together yet forever apart?” – Nicholas Sparks
“The first stab of love is like a sunset, a blaze of colour – oranges, pearly pinks, vibrant purples…” – Anna Godbersen
Poignant quotes about sunsets and life
Many authors call on the sunset as a motif for life, love and loss. The natural phenomenon of the sun setting – so quotidian yet so beguiling at the same time – is often cause to pause and reflect on life itself.
No two sunsets are quite the same, just as no two individuals – and no two life paths – are identical. These inspirational captions for sunset and sayings about sunsets remind us that life, just like a sunset, is both precious and fleeting.
“Get outside. Watch the sunrise. Watch the sunset. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel big or tiny? Because there’s something good about feeling both.” – Amy Grant
“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“One day, all your worries will set like the sun does and deserved happiness will come gushing like waves at the beach do.” – Jasleen Kaur Gumber
“At the moment that everything goes dark, the sunset in front of us becomes the whole story. But if we find courage enough to wait until tomorrow morning, we will suddenly come to understand that in reality yesterday’s sunset was only half of the story.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“Every sunrise is a blessing, it’s an opportunity to learn something new and to create something that can benefit others. It also gives a chance to make amends. Use it wisely before sunset.” – Euginia Herlihy
“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, ‘Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner’. I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.” – Carl R. Rogers
“One day, all your worries will set like the sun does and deserved happiness will come gushing like waves at the beach do.” – Jasleen Kaur Gumber
“It seems there is more interest in sunsets than sunrises. Perhaps because innately we fear the dark.” – Richelle E. Goodrich
“The sun rises, the sun falls, the wind blows and the birds sing no matter where you are. These are experiences that unite us all… something we can all enjoy together.” – Melanie Charlene
“Each day you wake up, you wake up with billions around the world but when the sun sets, not all retire. It is a joyful privilege to note that you are a unique person among billions of people who wake up each day to walk on the surface of the earth. It is a noble responsibility to note that you have to use this privilege effectively.” – Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
“I find it incredibly amazing how at every sunset, the sky is a different shade. No cloud is ever in the same place. Each day is a new masterpiece. A new wonder. A new memory.” – Sanober Khan
Funny sunset captions
Sunset is often used a metaphor for life, but we can have some fun with it too! To finish on a lighter note, here are a few of my favourite jolly and funny quotes about the sunset.
I hope they put a smile on your face!
“When your shadow becomes more popular than you, then you know that the sun is setting!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
“Not everyone has to ride off into the sunset with a man. Some of us just want a tan.” – Mandy Hale
“At the end of the world the sunset is like a child smashing a pack of crayons into God’s face.” – Craig Stone
“Sunset on the water ought to be a quiet and easy time, but I guess some people can’t stand a little silence.” – Carl Hiaasen
“He glanced at the sun which, old professional that it was, chose that moment to drop below the horizon.” – Terry Pratchett
“I’ve got sunsets on the insides of my eyelids.” – Pete Wentz
Long sunset quotes
These next quotes are more elaborate and metaphoric. You might recognise a few of the authors – I can’t think of a single great writer or poet who hasn’t had a stab at putting the beauty of the sunset into words.
Bask in these beautiful soliloquies the same way you drink up the most glorious sunset.
“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.” – John Steinbeck
“This is my favourite time of day. When the sun is setting and the last of its fiery fingers caress the water line before relinquishing their hold to the darkness of the night. And I can watch as the stars pop out, one by one, to pinprick the sky with their silvery light.” – J.A. Souders
“When the sun went down, and touches of blue filtered into the fading afterglow, an orange lamp would light up in the knob of the bell and slowly begin to revolve. The beacon always pinpointed the onset of nightfall exactly. Against the most gorgeous sunsets or in dim drizzling mist, the beacon was ever true to its appointed moment: that precise instant in the alchemy of light and dark when darkness tipped the scales.” – Haruki Murakami
“Sunset angles through the heavy curtains, drawn against the light. Dust motes dance in the red beams, ash above a dying fire. I feel like I am inside a heart, surrounded by bloody red.” – Victoria Aveyard
“The sun has collapsed against the vast expanse of the darkening ocean. Soon the turquoise sea will be completely black like a void. I hate the ocean at night. It has me thinking about hopelessness and loss. The red sky a watercolour as the thickening clouds leak together.” – Ilse VAN. Rensburg
“Watching the day slowly bloom into night. That’s how it always seemed to me: not the fading of a withered flower, but the opening of some dark, rich blossom, with unexpected hues and heavy scents.” – Patricia A. McKillip
“It was a glorious evening, the sun seeming to hesitate in the process of setting, as if it couldn’t bear to end the day. It was teetering on the horizon, throwing ribbons of pink and mauve across the sky like life ropes, and the air was sweet with jasmine.” – Kate Morton
“The pale stars were sliding into their places. The whispering of the leaves was almost hushed. All about them it was still and shadowy and sweet. It was that wonderful moment when, for lack of a visible horizon, the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater – a moment when anything can happen, anything be believed in.” – Olivia Howard Dunbar
“Sunsets. The illusion either above the horizon or below it. When day and night are linked in a way that cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time.” – Ebelsain Villegas
“The nights did not come gently but seemed to slam down angrily upon the Earth, and starlight transformed the golden brown of the wheat to the colour of polished silver.” – Rick Yancey
“The sun tells the best joke of a day full of them, setting so spectacularly that you can almost smell the tropical paradise lazing somewhere over this rim of endless, grey socialist towers. Miles of square windows explode orange, red, and purple, like a million TV sets broadcasting the apocalypse. Clouds unspool. The sky drains of birds.” – Tod Wodicka
“Tonight the sun has died like an Emperor… great scarlet arcs of silk… saffron… green… crimson… and the blaze of Venus to remind one of the absolute and the infinite… And along the lower rim of beauty lay the hard harsh line of the hills.” – John Coldstream
“This is my favourite time of the day. Light and dark touch for a few moments… I used to wish dusk would last longer, but it’s quickness seems to add to making it special.” – Regina McBride
And there you have it: My favourite poignant, beautiful and stirring sunset captions and quotes!
Do you have a good quote about sunset that you’d like to add to the list? I’d love to hear your favourites in the comments below.
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