Selected night quotes

1. I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

2. The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.

3. I really love the dark of the night. It helps me to concentrate.

4. I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. What hours, O what black hours we have spent This night!

5. My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time. In broad daylight, and at most seasons I am apt to think the greater part of it a mere dream; but sometimes in the autumn, about two in the morning when winds and animals howl dismally, there comes from inconceivable depths below a damnable suggestions of rhythmical throbbing ... and I feel that the transition of Juan Romero was a terrible one indeed.

6. 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.

7. Thus night with all her snares passed through the upper world and baited all heads sweetly, fed all foolish hopes, for night can bring to men all shrewish day denies, wrapped as a gift in the green leaves of opiate dream.

8. Every second, ten stars set behind the black water in the west.

9. If there's one thing I can't bear, it's when hundreds of old men come creeping in through the window in the middle of the night and throw all manner of garbage over me. I can't bear that.

10. 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: In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths; Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. How beautiful is night!

11. You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.

12. I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

13. Come, blessed barrier between day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!

14. There, by the starlit fences, The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.

15. All night have the roses heard The flute, violin, bassoon; All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd To the dancers dancing in tune; Till a silence fell with the waking bird, And a hush with the setting moon.

16. In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.

17. Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of [Dr. Seuss's] Hop on Pop.

18. The snow had begun in the gloaming, And busily all the night Had been heaping field and highway With a silence deep and white.

19. I can see lights in the distance Trembling in the dark cloak of night Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing A waltz on All Souls Night.

20. I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright.

21. That hour, o' night's black arch the keystane.

22. About, about, in reel and rout The death fires danced at night.

23. The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea. Off shot the spectre-bark.

24. Like one that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

25. The moon like a flower In heaven's high bower, With silent delight, Sits and smiles on the night.

26. My soul has gained the freedom of the night.

27. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.

28. Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world.

29. By night an atheist half believes a God.

30. Religion was too vague. God was different. He was something real, something I could feel. But there were only certain times when I could feel it. I used to lie between cool, clean sheets at night after I'd had a bath, after I had washed my hair and scrubbed my knuckles and finger-nails and teeth. Then I could lie quite still in the dark with my face to the window with the trees in it, and talk to God. 'I am clean, now. I've never been as clean. I'll never be cleaner.' And somehow, it was God. I wasn't sure that it was: just something cool and dark and clean.

31. The moon is dark, and the gods dance in the night; there is terror in the sky, for upon the moon hath sunk an eclipse foretold in no books of men or of earth's gods...' There is unknown magic on Hatheg-Kla, for the screams of the frightened gods have turned to laughter, and the slopes of ice shoot up endlessly into the black heavens whither I am plunging... Hei! Hei! At last! In the dim light I behold the gods of earth!

32. Dear Night! this world's defeat; The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb; The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat Which none disturb! Christ's progress, and His prayer-time; The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.

33. The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit. (683)

34. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn, Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

35. So, we'll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright.

36. Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon.

37. The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits;-on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

38. While shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down, And glory shone around.

39. Swiftly walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave Where, all the long and lone daylight, Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear, Which make thee terrible and dear, - Swift be thy flight!

40. The moving Moon went up the sky, And no where did abide: Softly she was going up, And a star or two beside.

41. Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land.

42. I saw how the night came, Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks I felt afraid. And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

43. Tonight the lilacs magnify The easy passion, the ever-ready love Of the lover that lies within us and we breathe An odor evoking nothing, absolute. We encounter in the dead middle of the night The purple odor, the abundant bloom.

44. When the loud day for men who sow and reap Grows still, and on the silence of the town The insubstantial veils of night and sleep, The meed of the day's labour, settle down, Then for me in the stillness of the night The wasting, watchful hours drag on their course, And in the idle darkness comes the bite Of all the burning serpents of remorse; Dreams seethe; and fretful infelicities Are swarming in my over-burdened soul, And Memory before my wakeful eyes With noiseless hand unwinds her lengthy scroll. Then, as with loathing I peruse the years, I tremble, and I curse my natal day, Wail bitterly, and bitterly shed tears, But cannot wash the woeful script away.

45. In my Spanish cloak, And old slouch hat, And overshoes of felt, And Tyke, my faithful dog, And my knotted hickory cane, I slipped about with a bull's-eye lantern From door to door on the square

46. Let's swim to the moon, uh huh Let's climb through the tide Penetrate the evenin' that the City sleeps to hide

47. The breathing of the air, The song of the sweet nightingale, The grove and its beauty In the serene night, With the flame that consumes, and gives no pains. ~ 39

48. This is where the shadows come to play twixt the day And night Dancing and skipping Along a chink of light

49. Nobody ever walked across the bridge, not on a night like this. The rain was misty enough to be almost fog-like, a cold gray curtain that separated me from the pale ovals of white that were faces locked behind the steamed-up windows of the cars that hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhatten by night was reduced to a few sleepy, yellow lights off in the distance. Some place over there I had left my car and started walking, burying my head in the collar of my raincoat, with the night pulled in around me like a blanket. I walked and I smoked and I flipped the spent butts ahead of me and watched them arch to the pavement and fizzle out with one last wink. If there was life behind the windows of the buildings on either side of me, I didn't notice it. The street was mine, all mine. They gave it to me gladly and wondered why I wanted it so nice and all alone. There were others like me, sharing the dark and the solitude, but they were huddled in the recessions of the doorways not wanting to share the wet and the cold. I could feel their eyes follow me briefly before they turned inward to their thoughts again. So I followed the hard concrete footpaths of the city through the towering canyons of the buildings and never noticed when the sheer cliffs of brick and masonry diminished and disappeared altogether, and the footpath led into a ramp then on to the spidery steel skeleton that was the bridge linking two states. I climbed to the hump in the middle and stood there leaning on the handrail with a butt in my fingers, watching the red and green lights of the boats in the river below. They winked at me and called in low, throaty notes before disappearing into the night. Like eyes and faces. And voices. I buried my face in my hands until everything straightened itself out again, wondering what the judge would say if he could see me now. Maybe he'd laugh because I was supposed to be so damn tough, and here I was with hands that wouldn't stand still and an empty feeling inside my chest.

50. I think I wont sleep tonight.... I'll stay awake. I'll watch you all night. I'll hold your hand

51. I dim the lights... and think about you Spend sleepless nights... to think about you You said you loved me... or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind?

52. And this time I forget to slip into your slumber The light is on the left side of your head And I'm standing in your doorway And I'm mumbling and I can't remember the last thing that ran through my head

53. Warm summer sun, shine kindly here; Warm southern wind, blow softly here; Green sod above, lie light, lie light - Good-night, dear heart, good-night, good-night.

54. Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest. Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled. The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead.

55. 'The edge of evening ... the long curve of people all wishing on the first star.... Always remember those men and women along the thousands of miles of land and sea. The true moment of shadow is the moment in which you see the point of light in the sky. The single point, and the Shadow that has just gathered you in its sweep ...' Always remember. The first star hangs between his feet. Now

56. There never was night that had no morn.

57. To-night she will spread her brown hair on his pillow, But I shall be hearing the harsh cries of wild fowl.

58. To man, that was in th' evening made, Stars gave the first delight; Admiring, in the gloomy shade, Those little drops of light.

59. And I say, 'Yes, you look wonderful tonight.'

60. Caballito negro. ?Donde llevas tu jinete muerto?

61. In soft deluding lies let fools delight. A shadow marks our days, which end in Night.

62. One naked star has waded through The purple shadows of the night, And faltering as falls the dew It drips its misty light.

63. When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon. Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon. And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night: We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.

64. We're drinking and we're dancing but there's nothing really happening. The place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night.

65. And sometimes when the night is slow/ The wretched and the meek/ We gather up our hearts and go/ A Thousand Kisses Deep.

66. Has anybody ever seen a drama critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.

67. Daytime, short as it may be, is better than night.

68. I never saw Portsmouth by day.

69. When men were all asleep the snow came flying, In large white flakes falling on the city brown, Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying, Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town.

70. My delight and thy delight Walking, like two angels white, In the gardens of the night.

71. On such a night, when Air has loosed Its guardian grasp on blood and brain, Old terrors then of god or ghost Creep from their caves to life again.

72. The broad cloud-driving moon in the clear sky Lifts o'er the firs her shining shield, And in her tranquil light Sleep falls on forest and field. See! sleep hath fallen: the trees are asleep: The night is come. The land is wrapt in sleep.

73. Behind the western bars The shrouded day retreats, And unperceived the stars Steal to their sovran seats. And whiter grows the foam, The small moon lightens more; And as I turn me home, My shadow walks before.

74. One luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night.

75. Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high, All night long in the dark and wet, A man goes riding by. Late in the night when the fires are out, Why does he gallop and gallop about?

76. The greenish sky glows up in misty reds, The purple shadows turn to brick and stone, The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds, And hear the milk-cart jangle by alone.

77. The window-lights, myriads and myriads, Bloom from the walls like climbing flowers.

78. The phone crazies own the days; when the stars come out, that's us. We're like vampires. We've been banished to the night. Up close we know each other because we can still talk; at a little distance we can be pretty sure of each other by the packs we wear and the guns more and more of us carry; but at a distance, the one sure sign is the waving flashlight beam. Three days ago we not only ruled the earth, we had survivor's guilt about all the other species we'd wiped out in our climb to the nirvana of round-the-clock cable news and microwave popcorn. Now we're the Flashlight People.

79. Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.