The good he scorn'd

Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,

Not to return; or if it did, in visits

Like those of angels, short and far between.

Robert Blair (1699-1747): The Grave. Part ii. Line 586.

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

The short and simple annals of the poor.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 8.

This is the short and the long of it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.

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.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

Be the day never so long,

Evermore at last they ring to evensong.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.

A short horse is soone currid.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.

For solitude sometimes is best society,

And short retirement urges sweet return.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 249.

Lightly from fair to fair he flew,

And loved to plead, lament, and sue;

Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain,

For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion. Canto v. Stanza 9.