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
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-Up Comedian
One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-American Philosopher, Poet, Sculptor
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
Most glorious night!
Thou wert not sent for slumber!
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
Night is the mother of thoughts.
—John Florio (1553–1625) British Translator, Italian Scholar, Tutor
For the night shows stars and women in a better light.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Research is the name given the crystal formed when the night’s worry is added to the day’s sweat.
—Martin H. Fischer
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
Live life so completely that when death comes to you like a thief in the night, there will be nothing left for him to steal.
—Indian Proverb
Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Mine is the night, with all her stars.
—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
For the happiest life, rigorously plan your days, leave your nights open to chance.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Night is the blotting paper for many sorrows.
—Indian Proverb
The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.
—Frederic Lawrence Knowles (1869–1905) American Poet, Editor
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.
—Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American Novelist
Night, the mother of fear and mystery, was coming upon me.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Night is the other half of life, and the better half.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Night is a world lit by itself.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
We wake in the night, to stereophonic silence.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
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
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
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
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
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
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
The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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