Quotes
Quotes about Night
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars,--as stars to thee appear
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powder'd with stars.
The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Midnight shout and revelry,
Tipsy dance and jollity.
Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of silence through the empty-vaulted night,
At every fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it smil'd!
Virtue could see to do what virtue would
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
Where with her best nurse Contemplation
She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort
Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd.
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the midday sun.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost
That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
But oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd,
I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.
Days that need borrow
No part of their good morrow
From a fore-spent night of sorrow.
Orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
By night an atheist half believes a God.
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Now night descending, the proud scene was o'er,
But lived in Settle's numbers one day more.
Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
And makes night hideous; --answer him, ye owls!
And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show.
Gloomy as night he stands.
Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consum'd the midnight oil?
For many a day, and many a dreadful night,
Incessant lab'ring round the stormy cape.
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me.
