“We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.”
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
This has commonly been attributed to Orwell but has not been found in any of his writings. Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/07/rough-men/ found the earliest known appearance in a 1993 Washington Times essay by Richard Grenier: "As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." The absence of quotation marks indicates Grenier was using his own words to convey Orwell's opinion; thus it may have originated as a paraphrase of his statement in "Notes on Nationalism" https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwelnat.htm (May 1945): "Those who "abjure" violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf." There are also similar sentiments expressed in an essay which Orwell wrote on Rudyard Kipling, quoting from one of Kipling's poems: "Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep." In the same essay Orwell also wrote of Kipling: "He sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them." <br class="br">Misattributed
“two people can sleep in the same bed and still be alone when they close their eyes”
Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
1988
Theano (philosopher) Ancient philosopher
From Essay XX by Michel de Montaigne (translated by Charles Cotton, Macmillan London 1877).
Helena Bonham Carter (1966) British actress
Interview on Cinema.com, 2001 http://www.cinema.com/articles/547/planet-of-the-apes-interview-with-helena-bonham-carter.phtml
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise”
Ted Turner (1938) American media mogul and philanthropist
Khalil Gibran book Jesus, The Son of Man
Nicodemus The Poet, The Youngest Of The Elders In The Sanhedrim: On Fools And Jugglers
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
James Hetfield (1963) American musician, songwriter and record producer
Some Kind of Monster, 2003 - Talking about his addictions and big changes.
George Best (1946–2005) British footballer
In the book The Afterlife by Paul Morley " http://footyfactor.com/tag/the-afterlife", Footy Factor (April 23, 2009).
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed”
William H. McRaven (1955) United States admiral
University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70 <br class="br">Context: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed... If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed, will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Source: Review of Hunger and Love by Lionel Britton, in The Adelphi (April 1931)
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
Stuttgart. After 8th September 1831.
Source: "Selected Correspondence Of Fryderyk Chopin"; http://archive.org/stream/selectedcorrespo002644mbp/selectedcorrespo002644mbp_djvu.txt
Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Season 6, Episode 5: Trevor Noah http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/trevor-noah-thats-the-whole-point-of-apartheid-jerry
“Never go to bed angry, stay up and fight.”
William Congreve (1670–1729) British writer
Phyllis Diller, as quoted in Getting Through to the Man You Love : The No-Nonsense, No-Nagging Guide for Women (1999) by Michele Weiner-Davis, p. 151
Misattributed
Han Fei (-279–-232 BC) Chinese philosopher
明君之於內也,娛其色而不行其謁,不使私請。
Source: from "The Eight Villanies", Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996. Translated by Burton Watson.
Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible (1969)
Andrea Dworkin book Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation
Source: Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000), p. 246.
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 17
“When you go to bed, don't leave bread or milk
on the table: it attracts the dead.”
Rainer Maria Rilke book Sonnets to Orpheus
Sonnet 6 (as translated by Edward Snow)
Sonnets to Orpheus (1922)
The Mother (1878–1973) spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo
When she was attacked by a serious fever epidemic which had engulfed Japan in 1917 and this occult experience was widely publicized after the epidemic had abated, quoted in "Japan (1916-20)", also in “Yogi-doctors” and Occult Healing Arts:Towards a Post-colonial Anthropology of Holistic Therapeutics at Sri Aurobindo Ashram http://www.isa-sociology.org/publ/E-symposium/E-symposium-vol-1-1-2011/EBul-Mar-11-Paranjape.pdf., p. 8
“Lady Madonna lying on the bed
Listen to the music playing in your head.”
Paul McCartney (1942) English singer-songwriter and composer
“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
“There is an alternative to war. It's staying in bed and growing your hair.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Variant: A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.
“It's only worth staying in bed if you're young and in good company.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game
Source: The Angel's Game
“I have no intention of spending the night in a chair and leaving you the bed.”
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss book The Flame and the Flower
Source: The Flame and the Flower
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
“Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
“No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.”
Grace Slick (1939) American musician, writer and painter
Etgar Keret (1967) Israeli and polish writer and screenwriter
Source: The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
From a speech given at the White Shrine Club, Fresno, California, quoted in The Event Makers I’ve Known (2012) by Elvin C. Bell, p. 161. She is described as being in her late 70s, so c. 1960–1962
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker
T 2771, as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 26
after 1930
“And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin.”
James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915) Poet
Hassan, in Hassan, act 1, sc. 2 (1922)
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 3 “United Hotcake Preferred” (p. 72)
Warren Zevon (1947–2003) American singer-songwriter
"Trouble Waiting to Happen", written by Warren Zevon and J. D. Souther
Sentimental Hygiene (1987)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
Letter to Deborah Webster (25 October 1958)
“Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see.”
Exaudi, si digna precor quaeque ipsa furenti
subiceres. orbum visu regnisque carentem
non regere aut dictis maerentem flectere adorti,
quos genui quocumque toro; quin ecce superbi
—pro dolor!—et nostro jamdudum funere reges
insultant tenebris gemitusque odere paternos.
hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum
ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex
huc ades et totos in poenam ordire nepotes.
indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis
unguibus abripui, votisque instincta paternis
i media in fratres, generis consortia ferro
dissiliant. da, Tartarei regina barathri,
quod cupiam vidisse nefas.
Source: Thebaid, Book I, Line 73
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
Letter to Élie Diodati (4 July 1637), as translated in The Private Life of Galileo : Compiled primarily from his correspondence and that of his eldest daughter, Sister Maria Celeste (1870) http://books.google.com/books?id=ixUCAAAAYAAJ by Mary Allan-Olney, p. 278 <br class="br">Other quotes
“Rest in my arms
Sleep in my bed
There's a design
To what I did and said”
Sufjan Stevens (1975) American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
"Vito's Ordination Song"
Lyrics, Michigan (2003)
W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems
Lullaby http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1527/, st. 1 <br class="br">The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
“I wanna lay you down in a bed of roses”
Jon Bon Jovi (1962) American singer and musician
Music, Keep The Faith (1992)
José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager
During a Chelsea injury crisis <br class="br"> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/7004282.stm <br class="br">Chelsea FC
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), IX The Practice of Painting
“If there were any doubts, I think that they should be put to bed.”
Tim Cook (1960) American business executive
Talking about the Apple Watch, <br class="br"> bloomberg.com http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2014-09-17/tim-cook-interview-the-iphone-6-the-apple-watch-and-remaking-a-companys-culture-i077npsy
William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Speed, Act II, scene i.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590–1)
Duo Duo (1951) Poet
"Night" (1973), p. 9
The Boy who Catches Wasps (2002)
Ed Sheeran (1991) English singer-songwriter and producer
Drunk, written with Jake Gosling.
Song lyrics, + (2011)
“One should always sleep in all of one's guest beds, to make sure that they are comfortable.”
11 September 1941
My Day (1935–1962)
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Text of a letter written following his Hajj (1964)
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
Canto 5, "Byckerment"
Phantasmagoria (1869)
“Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed.”
Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American academic
City Aphorisms (1984)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
Marginalia http://www.easylit.com/poe/comtext/prose/margin.shtml (November 1844)
Stuart Hall (1929–2014) sociologist and cultural theorist
Rawling, Kelly answer
BBC Fighting Talk (2005)
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker
as model for his painting 'Morning', 1884
Quote in Munch's letter to Olav Paulsen, September 1884; as cited in Edvard Much – behind the scream, w:Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 53
1880 - 1895
“Mr. D, why is you doin' the Big Nasty on my bed?!”
Snoop Dogg (1971) American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
"Las Vegas TV Series", (2004).
John D. Carmack (1970) American computer programmer, engineer, and businessman
Quoted in Brad Cook, "John Carmack: Making the Magic Happen" http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2009/02/johncarmack/ Apple.com
Eddie Van Halen (1955) Dutch-American rock musician
Eddie Van Halen in April 1996, in an interview with Guitar World, when asked about how he went from playing his first open A chord to playing "Eruption" http://www.guitarworld.com/archive-billy-corgan-interviews-eddie-van-halen-1996?page=1
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to the Nation on Immigration (November 2014)
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Under Ben Bulben http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1745/, V <br class="br">Last Poems (1936-1939)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)
Context: If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any question how I ought to decide!
Context: If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any question how I ought to decide! That is just the case! The new Territories are the newly made bed to which our children are to go, and it lies with the nation to say whether they shall have snakes mixed up with them or not. It does not seem as if there could be much hesitation what our policy should be!
