Charlotte Bronte
Novelist, Poet
"A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow."
Insomnia quotes
Insomnia
201 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Leonard Cohen
Singer-Songwriter
"The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world."
Emile M. Cioran
Philosopher, Essayist
"Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself."
Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosopher
"Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed."
Albert Camus
Philosopher, Writer
"Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep."
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Topics related to Insomnia
Browse quotes that often appear alongside insomnia — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Insomnia quotes (page 1 of 11)
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"O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse."
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"Fatigue is the best pillow."
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"That's the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done"
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"All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own."
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"I used to think anxiety and insomnia drove me to success, but it was the stillness that let me be good at anything. When you extend the seconds of stillness, that's when you're able to think and learn."
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"Many things, such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly - are done worst when we try hardest to do them."
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"The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to."
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"You lack the season of all natures, sleep."
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"A conscious attempt to fall asleep is sure to produce insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a light directed outward. it's like the headlights on a locomotive—turn them inward and you'd have a crash."
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"Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve 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..."
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"I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius."
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"Laugh and the world laughs with you!"
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"What strangely enchanted tunes gush forth during those sleepless nights!"
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"A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness."
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"In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge."
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"When I want to go to sleep, I must first get a whole menagerie of voices to shut up. You wouldn't believe what a racket they make in my room."
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"Insomnia’s different,” I said. It was hard to explain this to people. “You know the light that comes on when you open the refrigerator door? Just imagine it stays on all the time, even after you close the door. That’s what it’s like in my head. The light stays on."
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"There's a beauty to wisdom and experience that cannot be faked. It's impossible to be mature without having lived."
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"Sleep, that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life."
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"No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."
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