Quotation from: Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

Written by: Joseph Conrad

And he had not heard a sound, either, all day but that one now of his
own muttering voice. It had been a day of absolute silence--the first
he had known in his life. And he had not slept a wink. Not for all these
wakeful nights and the days of fighting, planning, talking; not for all
that last night of danger and hard physical toil upon the gulf, had he
been able to close his eyes for a moment. And yet from sunrise to sunset
he had been lying prone on the ground, either on his back or on his
face.