Quotes from work
Night-Thoughts

Edward Young

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward Young published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745.

Edward Young photo

“The spirit walks of every day deceased.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 180.

Edward Young photo

“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 393.

Edward Young photo

“At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 417.

Edward Young photo

“To waft a feather or to drown a fly.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 154.

Edward Young photo

“A man of pleasure is a man of pains.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII, Line 793.

Edward Young photo

“Too low they build who build beneath the stars.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 206.
Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII

Edward Young photo

“Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night V, Line 661.

Edward Young photo

“What ardently we wish we soon believe.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VII, Line 1311.

Edward Young photo

“Life's cares are comforts; such by Heav'n design'd;
He that hath none must make them, or be wretched.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 160.

Edward Young photo

“How blessings brighten as they take their flight!”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 602.

Edward Young photo

“Creation sleeps! 'Tis as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause;
An awful pause! prophetic of her end.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 23.

Edward Young photo

“He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 24.

Edward Young photo

“The man of wisdom is the man of years.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night V, Line 775.

Edward Young photo

“That life is long which answers life's great end.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night V, Line 773.

Edward Young photo

“Virtue alone has majesty in death.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 650.

Edward Young photo

“And all may do what has by man been done.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VI, Line 606.

Edward Young photo

“A death-bed ’s a detector of the heart.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 641.

Edward Young photo

“Much learning shows how little mortals know;
Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VI, Line 519.

Edward Young photo

“All men think all men mortal but themselves.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 424.

Edward Young photo

“Man wants little, nor that little long.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night IV, Line 118.