I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.
- Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, "A New Refutation of Time" (1964).

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
~Vincent Van Gogh

Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras, ch. 1 (1942).

Night is a stealthy, evil Raven,
Wrapt to the eyes in his black wings.
- Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Day and Night

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
~Edward Young, Night Thoughts

Night's black Mantle covers all alike.
- Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes--First Week--First Day

***
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb

She walks in beauty like the
night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and in her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.~Lord Byron (1788-1824), She Walks in Beauty

And I still onward haste to my last night;
Time's fatal wings do ever forward fly;
So every day we live, a day we die.~Thomas Campion (1567-1620), Come Cheerful Day

Twilight, a timid fawn, went glimmering by,
And Night, the dark-blue hunter, followed fast.~George W. Russell (1867-1935), Refuge

* * *
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door.
~ An Irish Blessing

Wait till it is night before saying it was a fine day.
~French Proverb


******
"Oderint, Dum Metuant" Let them hate so long as they fear- Luccius Accus

[This message was edited by Alice on 04-10-06 at 12:18 PM.]

And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame;
Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came.
It swept the sky like a giant scythe, it quivered back to a wedge;
Argently bright, it cleft the night with a wavy golden edge.
~Robert W. Service, "The Ballad of the Northern Lights" From Ballads of a Cheechako (1909)~


The stars are the jewels of the night and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
~Henry David Thoreau~

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
~Sarah Williams-(1837-1868)~

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked. ~Lord Chesterfield~

"Do all things with love." Og Mandino