Waking Up Quotes

“Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.”
― Glen Cook, Sweet Silver Blues

“There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.”
― Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“Every time you come in yelling that God damn "Rise and Shine!" "Rise and Shine!" I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

“Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? There is a second of consciousness that is clean again. A second that is you, without memory or experience, the animal warm and waking into a brand new world. There is the sun dissolving the dark, and light as clear as music, filling the room where you sleep and the other rooms behind your eyes.”
― Jeanette Winterson

“Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognized I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now. Here comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because here, this morning, is where it has expected to find itself: what’s called at home.”
― Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

“I wanted to wake you straightaway, but I knew I had to wait several hours to ensure you were safely recovered."
"What! How long has it been?"
"Five minutes. I got bored.”
― Jonathan Stroud, The Golem's Eye

“The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.”
― Tove Jansson, Moominvalley in November

“If life was a dream, then dying must be the moment when you woke up. It was so simple it must be true. You died, the dream was over, you woke up. That's what people meant when they talked about going to heaven. It was like waking up.”
― Ian McEwan, The Daydreamer

“We awaken by asking the right questions. We awaken when we see knowledge being spread that goes against our own personal experiences. We awaken when we see popular opinion being wrong but accepted as being right, and what is right being pushed as being wrong. We awaken by seeking answers in corners that are not popular. And we awaken by turning on the light inside when everything outside feels dark.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Men all do about the same thing when they wake up.”
― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

“There are two ways of waking up in the morning. One is to say, 'Good morning, God,' and the other is to say, 'Good God, morning'!”
― Archbishop Fulton Sheen

“Обичам да я гледам, когато се събужда. Започваш да разбираш, че си истински влюбен, когато искаш да се събуждаш до някого по-силно, отколкото да заспивате заедно.”
― Zahary Karabashliev, 18% Сиво

“It’s not like I planned it. I never woke up from some rosy dream and said, “Okay, world, today I’m gonna spaz.”
― Shannon Celebi, After Spring Comes

“Waking up to a smell is a lot more satisfying than waking up to a noise. Instead of barging in uninvited and yanking you out into reality, smells enter your dreams with a silent knock and a polite "Excuse me?”
― Adi Alsaid

“I love the sight of his naked body.
especially in these quiet, vulnerable moments. These brackets of time stapled between dreams and reality are my favorite. There's a sweetness in this hesitant consciousness - a careful, gentle return of form of function, I've found I love these minutes most for the delicate way in which they unfold. It's tender.
Slow motion.
Time tying its shoes.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Restore Me

“There isn’t a good side and a bad side of you or of anybody, so there’s no need to be at war with yourself or anyone or anything at all.
All we are is a bunch of dozy people in the process of waking up.
All we really need to do is try gently to be open to continuing that process.
It’s no good getting worked up about stuff – it’s better to relax and laugh at our mistakes, then figure out how to learn from them and move on.”
― Jay Woodman

“Bright morning comes; the bloody-fingered dawn with zealous light sets seas of air ablaze and bends to earth another false beginning. My eyes open like cornflowers, stick, crusted with their own stale dew, then take that light.”
― Iain Banks, A Song of Stone

“Before she realized he was next to her, he had placed his hands over hers on the countertop, then hooped his fingers through hers. Gretel looked up at him, so startled she might as well have been shot.
'I just wanted to wake you up', he said.
Which is exactly what he did. One look at him and her heart was racing. One look, and whatever had been before was all over.”
― Alice Hoffman, Local Girls

“Un des moments les plus pénibles de sa vie était celui où, chaque matin, en s'éveillant, il s'apprenait son malheur.”
― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

“The dream was floating off satisfactorily on an inner sea.”
― Christopher Harman

“Oh, got no reason, got not shame
Got no family I can blame
Just don't let me disappear
I'mma tell you everything”
― Ryan Tedder

“DRUGS
Seeking for a state of forgetfulness
Absence from the REALITY
Trying to Embrace the SHAME
Though it helps for the MOMENT;
Twisting our MIND
Dragging us down in the END
Those Clueless Conversation
Hoplesss Promises
Wake up !”
― Lungh Gangmei

“For a moment, I’m caught in that fragile space between sleep and wakefulness, where the past is uncertain and the present has yet to take shape.”
― Alma Brooke, Four of a Kind

“There are universes within the same universe, and there is a universe where a few wake up to live, and another where a great many wake up to survive.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Burn Like Fire

“Waking up is magical; falling asleep is a miracle.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Burn Like Fire

“That I was far too concerned about public perception.

That perhaps, if I hadn't had some insane picture in my head of a type of life that I was trying so desperately to attain, as if it was my destiny, maybe I would have had a clearer eye about Dexter, or would have planned a wedding I could afford, or would have been able to shrug off the humiliation and not derail my job and relationships.

I hated how much of that landed. (p39)”
― Stacey Ballis, Wedding Girl

“Can’t sleep?” SIRS had asked.
“No,” Cavalo said roughly.
“Ah. I often wonder what it’s like.”
“What,” Cavalo asked, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes.
“Sleeping,” SIRS had said. “Being able to dream. I’m told it’s a wondrous thing.”
“Except when they’re nightmares. Not so wondrous when death is all you see.”
SIRS’s eyes had flashed. “I would think that would be even better,” he’d said. “Because you wake up, your heart pounding in your chest, and there would be a moment of terror before clarity sets in. The relief one must feel at realizing it was just a dream seems like it would be the greatest sensation in the world. How I wish I could wake from a nightmare.”
― T.J. Klune, Crisped + Sere

“If you wake up in the morning and feel no pain, it is to be feared that you died in the night.”
― A.M. Rose, Fool Me Twice

“Good Morning Sinkhole by Stewart Stafford

Lucky birdshit on my window,
A split-second awakening,
Another landslide out of bed,
Flailing in duvet quicksand.

Clawing at the walls going down,
Assume precarious crab-walk position,
Straining every fibre to avoid collapsing,
Land ho! with a fingertip mattress grab.

Steadying myself, I drag my carcass up,
Shaky leg muscles gain some relief,
Retake Altar of Id with a drowning sweat,
Survive to face more nightmare carpet rides.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“There are two kinds of mornings that stand out in my life. The ones where I wake with a nameless dread, and the ones where I wake with a deep sense of joy.”
― Alma Brooke, Four of a Kind