quotations about sleep
Some say that gleams of a remoter world
Visit the soul in sleep -- that death is slumber,
And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber
Of those who wake and live.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
"Mont Blanc"
It is a common rule with primitive people not to waken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to get back; so if the man wakened without his soul, he would fall sick. If it is absolutely necessary to rouse a sleeper, it must be done very gradually, to allow the soul time to return.
JAMES FRAZER
The Golden Bough
Holy and blest
Is the calm of thy rest,
For thy chamber of sleep
Is dark and deep.
HENRY ALFORD
"A Remembrance"
It was that sort of sleep in which you wake every hour and think to yourself that you have not been sleeping at all; you can remember dreams that are like reflections, daytime thinking slightly warped.
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
Icehenge
Frequent naps will keep you from getting old, especially if you take them while driving.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
To sleep is to die.
DAVID GEMMELL
Lord of the Silver Bow
When a man is asleep, he has in a circle round him the chain of the hours, the sequence of the years, the order of the heavenly host. Instinctively, when he awakes, he looks to these, and in an instant reads off his own position on the earth's surface and the time that has elapsed during his slumbers; but this ordered procession is apt to grow confused, and to break its ranks.
MARCEL PROUST
Swann's Way
But Sleep is kindly, even in his tricks; and the poets have treated him with proper reverence. According to the ancient mythologists, he had even one of the Graces to wife.
LEIGH HUNT
The Indicator, January 12, 1820
Sleep is truly a thief who ravishes our greatest treasures.
ANONYMOUS
"Early Rising", Catholic World, vol. 5
Death was a friend, and sleep was Death's brother.
JOHN STEINBECK
The Grapes of Wrath
You are now in a deep sleep
(In-store promises)
Endless possibilities
A life of ease
A life cocooned in a routine of food
(Stimulus and response!)
Softness is a thing called comfort
(It doesn't cost much to keep in touch)
We never forget you have a choice
Possibilities in store
A taste of paradise
Success on a plate for you
Endless promises
THIS HEAT
"Sleep"
Run the streets, all day. I can sleep, when I die.
JAY WAYNE JENKINS
"Soul Survivor"
Close your eyes now and kiss me
And whisper you'll miss me
Sleep tight
Sleep well
Sleep warm
DEAN MARTIN
"Sleep Warm"
Sleep is a nightly reminder that we are beholden to our bodies, that we are our bodies, and that one day we will die. It puts us at the wrong end of the mind-body dualism that has, from Plato through Descartes, raised mind over body. It's a blow to our dignity, a reminder ... that we are (to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare) "stinkingly dependent."
GAYLE GREENE
Insomniac
I've heard some studies have suggested that sleep isn't needed as much when we get older. I find that hard to believe. Sleep is as vital as coffee in the morning. Sleep is needed as much as breathing. Sleep is what I crave and -- if it's not 8 hours or close to it -- there's a chance I will really be grouchy the next morning.
ROGER BLUHM
"Sleep is needed more than ever", Dodge City Daily Globe, August 24, 2017
Life dreams itself, contents to keep
Happy immortality, in sleep.
ARTHUR SYMONS
"Alle Zattere"
There surely is some Life beyond
The state of man's mere waking mind:
Whereto -- Earth-blind --
Men's spirits creep
From out the sepulchre of sleep.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
"The Existence Dual", Cloudrifts at Twilight
I try to be a good person at all times. I try to be nice to my co-workers and to my boss. I try, but without sleep, it's hard.
ROGER BLUHM
"Sleep is needed more than ever", Dodge City Daily Globe, August 24, 2017
Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight.
H. P. LOVECRAFT
"Nemesis"
Too much sleep makes a person heavy and stupid, and those who wish to become useful to the community in their journey through life, must not take upon their backs much useless slumber.
E. L. BLANCHARD
Flights of Fancy: A Medley of Quips and Cranks in Prose and Verse