Sleep Quotes
Allen Woody 1935-
Clown Prince of American Humour
I want to tell you this terrific story about contraception. I asked
this girl to sleep with me, and she said no.
Anonymous
Whilst Adam slept, Eve from his side arose;
Strange his first sleep should be his last repose.
Auden W.H. 1907-1973
A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
Browne Sir Thomas 1605-1682
Religio Medici
We term sleep a death, and yet it is waking that kills us, and
destroys those spirits which are the house of life.
Bunyan John 1628-1888
The Pilgrim's Progress
Sleep is sweet to the labouring man.
Byron Lord 1788-1824
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure
meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying, feet.
Clare John 1793-1864
‘To Mary'
I sleep with thee, and wake with thee,
And yet thou are not there.
Hazlitt William 1778-1830
We are not hypocrites in our sleep.
Homer fl.8th Century BC
A councillor ought not to sleep the whole night through - a man to whom
the populace is entrusted, and who has many responsibilities.
Huxley Aldous 1894-1963
That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively
to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.
Jonson Ben c.1573-1637
Cynthia's Revels
Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
State in wonted manner keep:
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess, excellently bright.
Keats John 1795-1821
‘On Seeing the Elgin Marbles'
Mortality
Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep.
Lebowitz Fran 1946-
Metropolitan Life
Life is something to do when you can't sleep.
Masefield John 1878-1967
‘Sea Fever'
I must go down to the sea again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
Melville Herman 1819-1891
Moby Dick
Aye, toil as we may, we all sleep at last on the field. Sleep? Aye, and rust amid
greenness; as last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut swaths.
Milton John 1608-1674
Comus
What hath night to do with sleep?
Milton John 1608-1674
Paradise Lost
Sleep on
Blest pair; and O yet happiest if ye seek
No happier state, and know to know no more.
Milton John 1608-1674
Paradise Lost
His sleep
Was airy light from pure digestion bred.
Montaigne Michel de 1533-1592
Essays
Life is a dream; when we sleep we are
awake, and when awake we sleep.
Moore Thomas 1779-1852
‘Oh! breathe not his name'
Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade,
Where cold and unhonoured his relics are laid.
Pope Alexander 1688-1744
The Dunciad
While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.
Proverbs and Sayings
Jewish
Sleep faster, we need the pillows.
Pushkin Alexander 1799-1837
‘Remembrances'
When trade and traffic and all the noise of town
Is dimmed, and on the streets and squares
The filmy curtain of the night sinks down
With sleep, the recompense of cares,
To me the darkness brings not sleep nor rest.
Rabelais François c.1494-c.1553
I never sleep in comfort save when I am hearing a sermon or praying to God.
Richter Jean Paul 1763-1825
Sleep, riches and health to be truly enjoyed must be interrupted.
Russell Bertrand 1872-1970
The Conquest of Happiness
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Antony and Cleopatra
Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done,
And we must sleep.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Hamlet
For some must watch, while some must sleep;
thus runs the world away.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Hamlet
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Henry VIII
Some come to take their ease
And sleep an act or two.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Macbeth
Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep.'
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Measure for Measure
Thou hast nor youth nor age;
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Sonnet 87
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but, waking, no such matter.
Southey Robert 1774-1843
The Curse of Kehama
Thou hast been called, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,
But ´tis the happy who have called thee so.
Spenser Edmund c.1552-1599
The Faerie Queen
Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war, death after life does greatly
please.
Swinburne Algernon Charles 1837-1909
„Atalanta in Calydon"
He weaves, and is clothed with derision;
Sows, and he shall not reap;
His life is a watch or a vision
Between a sleep and a sleep.
Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892
Sleep - kinsman thou to death and trance and madness.
Thomas Edward 1878-1917
‘Lights Out'
I have come to the borders of sleep,
The unfathomable deep
Forest where all must lose
Their way.
Vigny Alfred de 1797-1863
Moise
Alas, Lord, I am powerful but alone. Let me sleep the sleep of the earth.
Waugh Evelyn 1903-1966
Decline and Fall
I haven't been to sleep for over a year. That's why I go to bed
early. One needs more rest if one doesn't sleep.
Wordsworth William 1770-1850
‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality'
The winds come to me from the fields of sleep.
Young Edward 1683-1765
Night Thoughts ‘Night 1'
Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!