“Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, “behold!’
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.”

A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. Act I, Sc. 1, Line 132.

By William Shakespeare [1564-1616].

Pulled from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett. Published by Little, Brown and Company 1955 Page 141.