Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task foredone.
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

                 Quiet night, that brings
  Rest to the laborer, is the outlaw’s day,
  In which he rises early to do wrong,
  And when his work is ended dares not sleep.
The Guardian, Act ii.  Sc. 4.  P. MASSINGER.

I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.
Macbeth, Act iii.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

All was so still, so soft, in earth and air,
You scarce would start to meet a spirit there
Secure that nought of evil could delight
To walk in such a scene, on such a night!
Lara.  LORD BYRON.

  Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour
  Friendliest to sleep and silence.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  V.  MILTON.

  The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;
  Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act v.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

In the dead vast and middle of the night. Hamlet, Act i.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

  ’Tis now the very witching time of night,
  When churchyards yawn, and Hell itself breathes out
  Contagion to this world.
Hamlet, Act iii.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

  O wild and wondrous midnight,
    There is a might in thee
  To make the charmed body
    Almost like spirit be. 
  And give it some faint glimpses
    Of immortality!
Midnight.  J.R.  LOWELL.

NOBILITY.

  Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
  In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
  Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
Sonnet IV.  J.R.  LOWELL.

      His nature is too noble for the world: 
  He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
  Or Jove for ’s power to thunder.
Coriolanus, Act iii.  Sc 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

  This was the noblest Roman of them all: 
  All the conspirators save only he
  Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
  He only, in a general honest thought
  And common good to all, made one of them.
Julius Caesar, Act v.  Sc 5.  SHAKESPEARE.

OPINION.

  For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
  Will back their own opinions by a wager.
Beppo.  LORD BYRON.

  Some praise at morning what they blame at night,
  But always think the last opinion right.
Essay on Criticism, Pt.  II.  A. POPE.

  He that complies against his will
  Is of his own opinion still.
Hudibras, Canto III.  S. BUTLER.

OPPORTUNITY.

  Who seeks, and will not take when once ’tis offered,
  Shall never find it more.
Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii.  Sc. 7.  SHAKESPEARE.