Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Butler contrasts autumn with spring to argue that apparent decline can be a form of enrichment. Flowers stand for immediacy, display, and beginnings; fruits suggest maturity, nourishment, and the rewards of time. Calling autumn “mellower” frames it as a season of tempered light and feeling—less showy, more sustaining. The line can be read as a defense of later life, experience, or any phase in which youthful brilliance fades but is replaced by depth, usefulness, and harvest. Its balanced antithesis (“lose…gain”) gives the thought the feel of a proverb: consolation grounded not in denial of loss, but in a recalibration of value.