The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
We wake in the night, to stereophonic silence.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The contemplation of night should lead to elevating rather than to depressing ideas. Who can fix his mind on transitory and earthly things, in presence of those glittering myriads of worlds; and who can dread death or solitude in the midst of this brilliant, animated universe, composed of countless suns and worlds, all full of light and life and motion?
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain,
Breaks the serene of heaven.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
And the night shall be filled with music, and the cares, that infest the day, shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
These blessed candles of the night.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Night is the mother of counsels.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
How absolute, and omnipotent is the silence of the night! And yet the stillness seems almost audible.—From all the measureless depths of air around us, comes a half sound, a half whisper, as if we could hear the crumbling and falling away of earth and all created things in the great miracle of nature, decay and reproduction ever beginning, never ending—the gradual lapse and running of the sand in the great hour glass of time.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The night is made for tenderness so still that the low whisper, scarcely audible, is heard like music, and so deeply pure that the fond thought is chastened as it springs and on the lip is made holy.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
For the night shows stars and women in a better light.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Never greet a stranger in the night, for he may be a demon.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
O comfort-killing night, image of hell, dim register and notary of shame, black stage for tragedies and murders fell, vast sin-concealing chaos, nurse of blame!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Night, like a giant, fills the church, from pavement to roof, and holds dominion through the silent hours. Pale dawn again comes peeping through the windows: and, giving place to day, sees night withdraw into the vaults, and follows it, and drives it out, and hides among the dead.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Thank Heaven, the sun has gone in, and I don’t have to go out and enjoy it.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Mine is the night, with all her stars.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Why does the evening, why does the night, put warmer love in our hearts?—Is it the nightly pressure of helplessness?—Or is it the exalting separation from the turmoils of life, that veiling of the world in which, for the soul, nothing remains but souls?
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
The worm of conscience is the companion of the owl.—The light is shunned by sinners and evil spirits only.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
—William C. Dement (1928–2020) American Sleep Researcher
Night’s deepest gloom is but a calm; that soothes the weary mind: The labored days restoring balm; the comfort of mankind.
—Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) British Poet, Essayist, Journalist
I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Boast during the day; be humble at night.
—Maori Proverb
I love night more than day—she is so lovely; But I love night the most because she brings My love to me in dreams which scarcely lie.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
Research is the name given the crystal formed when the night’s worry is added to the day’s sweat.
—Martin H. Fischer
This sacred shade and solitude, what is it?—It is the felt presence of the Deity.—Few are the faults we flatter when alone; vice sinks in her allurements, in ungilt, and looks, like other objects, black by night.—By night an atheist half believes a God.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! I thank thee, night! for thou hast chased away these horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, I could not dissipate: and with the blessing of thy benign and quiet influence now will I to my couch, although to rest is almost wronging such a night as this.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Darkness has divinity for me; it strikes thought inward; it drives back the soul to settle on herself, our point supreme! There lies our theater; there sits our judge. Darkness the curtain drops o’er life’s dull scene; ’tis the kind hand of Providence stretched out ‘twixt man and vanity: ’tis reason’s reign, and virtue’s too; these tutelary shades are man’s asylum from the tainted throng. Night is the good man’s friend, and guardian too; it no less rescues virtue, than inspires.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Under thy mantle black, there hidden lie, light-shunning theft, and traitorous intent, abhorred bloodshed, and vile felony, shameful deceit, and danger imminent, foul horror, and eke hellish dreriment.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
The day is done, and darkness falls from the wings of night.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.
—J. K. Rowling (b.1965) English Novelist
A woman who pretends to laugh at love is like a child who sings at night when he is afraid
—Indian Proverb
Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Most glorious night!
Thou wert not sent for slumber!
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Blemishes are hid by night and every fault forgiven; darkness makes any woman fair.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
In her starry shade of dim and solitary loveliness, I learn the language of another world.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Shadow owes its birth to light.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Night is the blotting paper for many sorrows.
—Indian Proverb
Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Press close bare-bosomed night—press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds! night of the large few stars! Still nodding night! mad naked summer night.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
However long the night, the dawn will break.
—African Proverb
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-up Comedian
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, Wrapt to the eyes in his black wings.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) American Writer, Poet, Critic, Editor.
Quiet night, that brings rest to the laborer, is the outlaw’s day, in which he rises early to do wrong, and when his work is ended, dares not sleep.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
For the happiest life, rigorously plan your days, leave your nights open to chance.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Night, the mother of fear and mystery, was coming upon me.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.
—Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American Novelist
Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star.
—Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942) Canadian Novelist