Sleep

One of the first and most important things for a critic to learn is how to sleep undetected in the theater.
~ William Archer

Sleep will bring thee dreams in starry number,
Let him come to thee and be thy guest.
~ William Edmondstoune (W.E.) Aytoun, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1839). Hermotimus

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Experience (1794). A Cradle Song

So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). The Chimney Sweeper

How foolish they who lengthen night,
And slumber in the morning light!
~ William Burdon, from Poems for Children (1805). On Rising Early

Purring in his sleep, Fletch (the cat) stretches out his little black paws to touch my hands, the claws withdrawn, just a gentle touch to assure him I am there beside him as he sleeps.
~ William S. Burroughs

It was far too late for uptown people, or working people, or anybody who wanted to sleep. In fact, all those with a place to go to had gone ...
~ William S. ("Billy") Burroughs, Jr., Speed (1970).

In a while, one of us will go up to bed
and the other one will follow.
Then we will slip below the surface of the night
into miles of water, drifting down and down
to the dark, soundless bottom
until the weight of dreams pulls us lower still.
~ Billy Collins, The Art of Drowning (1995). Osso Buco

How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
~ William Collins, from Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1746). Ode written in the year 1746

O Sleep, why dost thou leave me?
Why they visionary Joys remove?
~ William Congreve, Semele (c. 1707). Act II, scene ii

A good cure for insomnia is to get plenty of sleep.
~ W.C. Fields

Sleep is when all the unsorted stuff comes flying out as from a dustbin upset in a high wind.
~ William Golding, Pincher Martin (1956).

What is to happen to us
And what is to happen to each
Of us asleep in our places?
~ William Sydney (W.S.) Graham, from Collected Poems (1979). To My Wife at Midnight

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Plain Speaker, Volume I (1826). Essay II. On Dreams

Night, with her train of stars
And her great gift of sleep.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). Life and Death (Echoes). XXXIV: Margaritæ Sorori. I.M. (1876)

God help me. I'm so tired. I need my sleep. I make no bones about it. I need eight hours a day, and at least ten at night ...
~ Bill Hicks, Sane Man (1988).

On parent knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled:
So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.
~ Sir William Jones, in Asiatick Miscellany (1785). On Parent Knees

Of all earthly things sleep does the most to place things in their true proportions, calming excited nerves and dispelling exaggerated cares.
~ William Edward Hartpole (E.H.) Lecky, The Map of Life: Conduct and Character (1899). Chapter XVI. Time

How ya gonna find out if they're fresh troops if ya don't wake 'em up and ask 'em?
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin, Up Front (1945).

No small art is it to sleep; it is necessary for that purpose to keep awake all day.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

He generally slept with his mouth open, so that you could read his inmost thoughts.
~ (Edgar Wilson) "Bill" Nye, from Remarks by Bill Nye (1886). All About Menials

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king?
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act III, scene i

Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life ...
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene i

For the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

He that sleeps feels not the toothache.
~ William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. Act V, scene iv

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

I have not slept one wink.
~ William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. Act III, scene iii

If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
If I do wake, some planet strike me down,
That I may slumber in eternal sleep!
~ William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!"
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act II, scene ii

Not to be a-bed after midnight is to be up betimes.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act II, scene iii

O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II

Peace! peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

Put out the light, and then put out the light.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act V, scene i

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Sleep seldom visits sorrow; when it doth, it is a comforter.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Some come to take their ease
And sleep an act or two.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII

There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act III, scene iii

'Tis the soldier's life
To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

To die, to sleep;
To sleep! perchance to dream:
ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene i

My banks they are furnish'd with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
~ William Shenstone, A Pastoral Ballad in Four Parts (written in 1743). II: Hope

A great snug wall goes around everything,
has always been there, will always
remain. It is a good world to be
lost in. It comforts you. It is
all right. And you sleep.
~ William Stafford, Waking at 3 a.m. (1960)

I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.
~ Billy Wilder, quoted in Roundtable (1987). Life at the Marmont

Eternally asleep,
his dreams walk about the city where he persists
incognito.
~ William Carlos Williams, Paterson (1946). Book 1

Sleep!
There is hunting in heaven --
Sleep safe till tomorrow.
~ William Carlos Williams, from The Tempers (1913). Peace on Earth

I believe the greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night's sleep.
~ Harold Wilson

Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore and you sleep alone.
~ John Burgess Wilson

A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by,
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;
I have thought of all by turns, and yet do lie
Sleepless!
~ William Wordsworth, To Sleep. II, A Flock of Sheep

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
~ William Wordsworth, Lines Composed upon Westminster Bridge (Sept. 3, 1802).

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.
~ William Wordsworth, The Borderers (1795-96).

Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth?
Come, blessed barrier between day and day,
Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!
~ William Wordsworth, To Sleep (1806). II, A Flock of Sheep