I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A nap, my friend, is a brief period of sleep which overtakes superannuated persons when they endeavor to entertain unwelcome visitors or to listen to scientific lectures.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
It is a delicious moment, certainly, that of being well nestled in bed and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs are tired enough to render the remaining in one posture delightful; the labor of the day is gone. A gentle failure of the perceptions creeps over you; the spirit of consciousness disengages itself once more, and with slow and hushing degrees, like a mother detaching her hand from that of a sleeping child, the mind seems to have a balmy lid closing over it, like the eye—it is closed—the mysterious spirit has gone to take its airy rounds.
—Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) British Poet, Essayist, Journalist
In thee oppressors soothe their angry brow; in thee, th’ oppress’d forget tyrannic pow’r; in thee, the wretch condemn’d is equal to his judge; and the sad lover to his cruel fair; nay, all the shining glories men pursue, when thou art wanted, are but empty noise.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Sleep demands of us a guilty immunity. There is not one of us who, given an eternal incognito, a thumbprint nowhere set against our souls, would not commit rape, murder and all abominations.
—Djuna Barnes (1892–1982) American Writer, Artist
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
Methought I heard a voice cry Sleep no more,
Macbeth does murder sleep the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Sleep, thou repose of all things; thou gentlest of the duties; thou peace of the mind, from which care flies; who dost soothe the hearts of men wearied with the toils of the day, and refittest them for labor.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
The first moments of sleep are an image of death; a hazy torpor grips our thoughts and it becomes impossible for us to determine the exact instant when the “I,” under another form, continues the task of existence.
—Gerard de Nerval (1808–55) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
Some praise the Lord for Light,
The living spark;
I thank God for the Night
The healing dark.
—Robert W. Service (1874–1958) Canadian Poet, Writer
Even sleepers are workers and collaborators on what goes on in the universe.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Your life is a kind of laboratory where you’re constantly experimenting with your own higher knowing, always increasing your capacity to design the life you choose. Human beings must create; it’s hardwired. The question is, are you consciously creating or only sleepwalking through your human life?
—David Emerald
Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All privileges based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American-both of them equally so. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Historian, Political Leader, Explorer
Thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Six hours for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool.
—English Proverb
The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bed, and can’t get there, is the meanest feeling in the world.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
The bed is now as public as the dinner table and governed by the same rules of formal confrontation.
—Angela Carter (1940–92) English Novelist
In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
Sleeping in a bed—it is, apparently, of immense importance. Against those who sleep, from choice or necessity, elsewhere society feels righteously hostile. It is not done. It is disorderly, anarchical.
—Rose Macaulay (1881–1958) English Novelist, Essayist
We sleep, but the loom of life never stops and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear,
Your head like the golden-rod,
And we will go sailing away from here
To the beautiful land of Nod.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born is of course the miracle.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
I am accustomed to sleep, and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night’s sleep.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a great virtue: it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes, and prevents sin.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
Now blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep: it covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; ‘Tis meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. ‘Tis the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap; and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise-man even. There is only one thing that I dislike in sleep; ‘Tis that it resembles death; there’s very little difference between a man in his first sleep, and a man in his last sleep.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
—Unknown
There is nowhere in the world where sleep is so deep as in the libraries of the House of Commons.
—Henry Channon (1897–1958) American-Born British Mp
If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Leave a Reply