See Also: BREVITY, DEATH, LIFE

1. About as fixed as liquid mercury —Leslie Bennetts, New York Times, June 8, 1986
2. The brilliant passes like the dew at dawn —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

   In Faust, from which this is taken, Goethe continues by presenting the other side of the coin: “The true endures for ages yet unborn.”

3. Burnt like a faggot in a tempest —Willa Cather
4. Changed them like underwear —Paige Mitchell

   In Mitchell’s novel, The Covenant, law clerks are what are being so changed.

5. (His smile) comes and goes as quickly as snow —Robert Goldberg about film maker Alain Renais, Wall Street Journal, March 24, 1987

   See Also: ENTRANCES/EXITS

6. Disposable as extra income —Anon
7. Disposable as razor blades —Anon
8. Disposable as TV dinner containers —Anon
9. Enduring as a summer shower —Anon
10. Ephemeral as butterflies —Susan Heller Anderson on literary magazines, New York TimesColumn One, October 24, 1986
11. Ephemeral things, like movement, are manifestations of immortality —Joanne Selzer

    This is the closing line for a poem entitled Prima Ballerina.

12. Flare briefly like the candles upon a cake —Donald Justice
13. (Embrace … ) fleeting as a bird’s poise —Edith Wharton
14. Fleeting as a dream of night lost in the garish day —Aeschylus
15. Fleeting as a raspberry season —Line from television drama, “St. Elsewhere,” broadcast December 16, 1986
16. Fleeting as the estate of man —Marcus Aurelius
17. A fleeting gratification … like alms thrown to the beggar, that keeps him alive today that his misery may be prolonged till the morrow —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
18. How fading are the joys we dote upon! Like apparitions seen and gone —John Norris
19. Like a rainbow, spectacular but short-lived —Anon

    A variation: “Like a shooting star —spectacular but shortlived.”

20. Like water thrown on the sand: it [media campaign about energy crisis] left little trace —George F. Will
21. Mortality weights heavily on me like unwilling sleep —John Keats
22. (The moment of agitation) passed (from his gaze) like a cloud, leaving a clear blue sky —Christopher Isherwood
23. Passing through a certain stage, something rather like an illness —Thomas Mann
24. Permanent as a temporary price increase —Anon
25. Temporary as an idea in an empty head —Anon
26. Temporary as a wave —Anon
27. (Beauty is as) temporary as flowers —Anon
28. Transience (His self-possession was) temporary, like a reflection in water that may be wiped out at the first swell —Saul Bellow
29. (His love was as) transient as the first golden streaks of dawn —Harry Prince
30. Transitory as childhood —Lawrence Durrell
31. Will last about as long as a snowball in hell —Anon