[I]t seemed as if the streets were absorbed by the sky, and the night were all in the air. – Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Night is a world lit by itself. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

If the Stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. – Ralph Waldo Emerson