Quotes about sleep
page 6

“Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there is no enemy in the field.”

John Stuart Mill book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty

“The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.”

Christopher Hitchens book Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

Source: Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

History, Search

“Before going back to sleep I imagined (I saw) a plastic universe, changeable, full of wondrous chance, an elastic sky, a sun that suddenly is missing or remains fixed or changes its shape.”

Julio Cortázar book Hopscotch

Source: Hopscotch

Imagination, Universe, Change, Chance

“Don’t you just hate nights like that, when you think over every mistake you’ve made, every hurt you’ve received, every bit of meanness you’ve dealt out? There’s no profit in it, no point to it, and you need sleep.”

Charlaine Harris Dead and Gone

Source: Dead and Gone

Hate, Thinking, Hurt, Night

“You can sleep now, you said. You can sleep now. You said that.
I had a dream where you said that. Thanks for saying that.
You weren't supposed to.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

“You snore worse. At least I don't turn into a lion in my sleep."
"I only did it once."
"Once was weird enough, thank you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“I drove in last night,' he said. 'I couldn't sleep, it was too hot. So I went outside. I was feeling melancholy. Then I danced with a beautiful girl, and I felt better. What's your story?”

Jude Watson book What I Saw and How I Lied

Source: What I Saw and How I Lied

Beauty, Feeling, Girl, Dance

“Stay with me." As the tendrils of sleep syrup pull me down, I hear him whisper a word back, but I don't quite catch it.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“I got ready for bed and crawled in. The covers were comfortable and warm, but the pillow was just too weird. It gave me neck cramps, so I put it on the floor and went to sleep without it.
My first big mistake.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Anything seems possible at night when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

“Death is the veil which those who live call life;
They sleep, and it is lifted.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound

Earth, Act III, sc. iii, l. 113
Variant: Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life.
Source: Prometheus Unbound (1818–1819; publ. 1820)

“The one man you most want to sleep with may be the worst choice of all.”

Tess Gerritsen book Body Double

Source: Body Double

“When I was a fetus, I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping. I figured I should start stealing stuff while I still had no fingerprints.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“If men only felt about death as they do about sleep, all terrors would cease… Men sleep contentedly, assured that they will wake the following morning. They should feel the same about their lives.”

Richard Matheson book What Dreams May Come

Source: What Dreams May Come

Death, Men, Feeling

“I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don’t want to die.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“A poet's work… to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

“Kincaid, evidently exhausted himself, drew a gun, took the safety off, placed it on his chest, and went to sleep too.

"It's cute," I whispered to Murphy. "He has a teddy Glock.”

Jim Butcher book Small Favor

Source: Small Favor

“Honey, you're the one who stopped sleeping with me, OK?
It'll be a year come April 20th.
I remember the date exactly, because it was Hitler's birthday”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“As Nietzsche said, ‘that which doesn’t kill you– ’(Alexion)
Will only require brief hospitalization. And if you’re a Dark-Hunter, just a good day’s sleep. (Danger)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Sins of the Night

“And he thinks that if his soul had a form, this is what it would be. A baby sleeping in his arms.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Soul, Thinking, Baby

“Do you often sleep tied to the bed?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Variant: He waved a hand at the ropes. “Do you often sleep tied to the bed?
Source: Clockwork Angel

“I can sleep like a champion. I once slept through a smoke alarm going off. For three hours.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

“Food. Drink. Sleep. Books. They are all drugs.”

Fay Weldon (1931) English author, essayist and playwright

Source: The Fat Woman's Joke

Books, Food, Drink

“A few nights later, I secretly hope that I might be a genius. Why else can no amount of sleeping pills fell my brain? But in the morning my daughter asks me what a cloud is and I cannot say.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

Hope, Daughters, Night

“You can’t imagine the white-hot fury someone who can’t sleep has toward the beautiful dreamer beside him.”

Karen Joy Fowler book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Source: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Beauty, Imagination

“The integrity of my sleep has been forever compromised, sir.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

“He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

“Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“Did that remind anybody else of something?"
"Yes," Eve said, tapping her lower lip with a bloodred fingernail. "How much I need to shave her head while she's sleeping.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

“The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.”

Woody Allen Without Feathers

"Scrolls".
Without Feathers (1975)

“Rape is a crime against sleep and memory; it's afterimage imprints itself like an irreversible negative from the camera obscura of dreams.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

“too often, the only escape is sleep”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“Time for bed.” I held my fist out. One by one, my flock stacked theirs on top, and then we headed up into the trees to sleep the sleep of the innocent. Well, okay, maybe not so innocent. But the sleep of the much less guilty than others, for sure.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Final Warning

“What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty?”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Source: The Second Sex

“The six elements of her Fail Proof Broken-Heart Curing Treatment: "Vitamin E, get much sleep, drink much water, travel to a place far away from the person you loved, meditate and teach your heart that this is destiny.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Travel, Drink, Water

“Let the future sleep for now, as it deserves. If you wake it too early, you get a groggy present.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

“There are some dreams that get stuck between your teeth when you sleep, so that when you open your mouth to yawn awake they fly right out of you.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“One of the few downsides to being awakened is that we no longer require sleep; therefore we also no longer dream. It's a shame, because if I could dream, I know I'd dream about you.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

“When I sleep, I dream of you, and when I wake, I long to hold you in my arms. If anything, our time apart has only made me more certain that I want to spend my nights by your side, and my days with your heart.”

Nicholas Sparks book Nights in Rodanthe

Paul Flanner, Chapter 16, p. 188
Source: 2000s, Nights in Rodanthe (2002)

Wedding, Dreams, Time, Heart

“I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity”

Jerzy Kosiński (1933–1991) Novelist

“Your favorite volhv showed up half an hour ago, complaining about his lack of sleep and stupid gods. He says he brought his Batman belt.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

“Eat till you're full. Play anytime you want. Sleep as much as you like. Cry. Get angry. Laugh. Live. Live. Live.”

Kazuya Minekura (1975) Japanese manga artist

“We sleep 1/3 of our lives away.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”

Roald Dahl The BFG

Source: The BFG

“I couldn’t leave Total behind.”
“Total?” Iggy asked.
“That’s what his card said,” Angel explained.
“Totally a mutant dog who will probably turn on us and kill us in our sleep,” Fang said.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing you to grow. Without them, it sleeps- seldom to awaken. The sleeper must awaken.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

“If you’re really hard up, I can introduce you to my grandmother. She’s a fan.” Adam blinked. “She doesn’t typically sleep with pretty young things, but she would make an exception in your case. You might even learn a trick or two.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

“What child unable to sleep on a warm summer night hasn't thought he saw Peter Pan's sailing ship in the sky? I will teach you to see that ship.”

Roberto Cotroneo (1961) Italian journalist and writer

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Money, Soul, Help, Night

“I know it's not fair to ask you to be with me when we can't even sleep in the same bed, but I'll love you better than anyone else could. I'll take care of you and make you happy. I know I can.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

Love, Happiness

“Would you truly sleep with strangers?" "I don't know, I haven't met the strangers yet.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Skin Trade

Source: Skin Trade

“I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him. At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Dreams, Thinking, Waiting, Heart

“Is it in these bottomless nights that you sleep in exile?”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

“All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I'd sooner go to my dentist any day.”

Evelyn Waugh book Vile Bodies

Source: Vile Bodies (1930)

“It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“I cried until my eyes swelled shut, and then I slept, a black, dreamless sleep from which I awoke amazingly refreshed, at least until I remembered.”

Elizabeth Berg (1948) American novelist

Source: The Year of Pleasures

“I don't know if you've ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for thousands of years. Or just not exist..”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Did you ever dream you had a friend, Alec? Someone to last your whole life and you his. I suppose such a thing can’t really happen outside sleep.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

“Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“Go to sleep, baby, Mama will sing. Of blue butterflies, and dragonfly wings. Moonlight and sunbeams, raiment so fine. Silver and gold, for baby of mine. Go to sleep, baby. Sister will tell, of wolves and of lambs, and demons who fell.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Sister, Singing, Baby

“Did you say something Macey?' I asked, but she cut me a look that could kill. She reached into her bag, ripped off a sliver of Evapopaper, and scribbled:
'Can we study tonight? (Tell anyone, and I'll kill you in you sleep!)”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Secret, Personality

“Gabe?"
The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.
"There could be love", Jonas whispered.”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

“You should be home sleeping. What is the use of having a man in the house, if he cannot take care of you for a while?”
“Mmm,” I said. “I give up. What's the use of having a man in the house?”

Patricia Briggs book Blood Bound

Source: Blood Bound

“Guess that's thirty-one pieces of silver you've got now, huh? Sleep well, Judas.”

Mark Millar (1969) Scottish comic book writer

Source: Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event

“Only happy people have nightmares, from overeating. For those who live a nightmare reality, sleep is a black hole, lost in time, like death.”

Guy Sajer book The Forgotten Soldier

Source: The Forgotten Soldier

Death, People, Reality, Time

“You want to play video games twenty-four hours a day?"
"Or watch. I just want to not be me. Whether it's sleeping or playing video games or riding my bike or studying. Giving my brain up. That's what's important.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“I zipped myself all the way into the sleeping bag of myself, not because I was hurt, and not because I had broken something, but because they were cracking up.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

“Mom's eyes blazed. "Are you sleeping with her?"

Oh, god. Did we have to do this here? Now? "Well, actually," I smirked, "we don't get a lot of sleep.”

Julie Anne Peters book Keeping You a Secret

Source: Keeping You a Secret

“Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it. I drank more and continued my mantra. 'Stop thinking', swig, 'empty your head', swig, 'now, seriously empty your head'.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“My mother wasnʹt sleeping with anybody. She doesnʹt even sleep with my father.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the hearts that love… I believe in sunshine, fresh air, friendship, calm sleep, beautiful thoughts.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Love, Friendship, Beauty, Thinking

“I fell into a deep sleep tucked in that little cocoon, a deeper sleep than I might of had in years.

Right up until someone kicked me and said "Gotcha!”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Angel

“Sleep is still most perfect, in spite of hygienists, when it is shared with a beloved.”

D.H. Lawrence book Sons and Lovers

Source: Sons and Lovers

“Rape is a crime against sleep and memory; it's after image imprints itself like an irreversible negative from the camera obscure of dreams. Though their bodies would heal, their souls had sustained a damage beyond compensation”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

Dreams, Soul, Memory

“You know what’s a great metaphor for love? Sleeping beauty. Because you have to plow through this incredible thicket of thorns in order to get to beauty, and even then, when you get there, you still have to wake her up.
— Tiny Cooper”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“If you're really tired, I could put you to sleep," he said. "Tell you a bedtime story."
She looked at him. "Are you serious?"
"I'm always serious”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

“Yes, there was something special about me, and I knew what it was. I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Source: My Story

“The room was very quiet. I walked over to the TV set and turned it on to a dead channel-white noise at maximum decibels, a fine sound for sleeping, a powerful continuous hiss to drown out everything strange.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“There is a tiger in my room,' said Frances.
'Did he bite you?' said Father.
'No,' said Frances.
'Did he scratch you?' said Mother.
'No,' said Frances.
'Then he is a friendly tiger,' said Father. 'He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.”

Russell Hoban (1925–2011) American British novelist, children's writer and illustrator

Source: Bedtime for Frances

“If they tell you that she died of sleeping pills you must know that she died of a wasting grief, of a slow bleeding at the soul.”

Clifford Odets (1906–1963) Playwright, screenwriter, director, actor

Depressing, Soul

“The prince is never going to come. Everyone knows that; and maybe sleeping beauty's dead.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

“I used to sleep with my books in piles all over my bed and sometimes they were the only thing keeping me warm and always the only thing keeping me alive. Books are the best and worst defense.”

Sherman Alexie book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Source: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“When every inch of the world is known, sleep may be the only wilderness that we have left.”

Louise Erdrich (1954) writer from the United States

Source: The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year

“Close, close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,

Close as two pages
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.

Each knows all
the other knows,
learned by heart
from head to toes.”

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet

Source: Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments

Books, Lovers, Learning, Reading

“George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

“My heart is broken.
It really is. All the signs are there. I can't sleep- not even burgers. Every time the phone rings, my pulse leaps… But it's never for me, it's never him.”

Meg Cabot book All American Girl

Source: All-American Girl

“Gentle lady, do not sing
Sad songs about the end of love;
Lay aside sadness and sing
How love that passes is enough.

Sing about the long deep sleep
Of lovers that are dead, and how
In the grave all love shall sleep:
Love is aweary now.”

James Joyce book Chamber Music

Source: Chamber Music

Love, Sadness, Lovers, Singing

“Well, she was talking to me. That's enough to make anyone lose their temper. And I accused her of sleeping with my dad because he was the soundest evolutionary choice.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

“I’m a cat. I respect the sanctity of sleep.”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

“Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Source: Pontoon

“Sleep seems to hammer out for me the logical conclusions of my vague days, and offer them to me as dreams.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

“I can't imagine what possessed you to propose to me."
"Well that will give you something to puzzle over any time you can't sleep.”

Georgette Heyer (1902–1974) British historical romance and detective fiction novelist

Source: Behold, Here's Poison

Imagination, Time

“Why didn’t you sleep with the headrest?”
I shrugged. “It was uncomfortable.” I looked at Sadie for support. “You didn’t use it, did you?”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “Well, of course I did. It was obviously there for a reason.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

“Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred

Pain, People, Chance

“Tired, but not the kind of tired that sleep fixes.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances