“The present! it sinketh with sorrow and care,
That but for the future, it never could bear;
We dwell in its shadow, we see by its light,
And to-day trusts to-morrow, it then will be bright.”
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)
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Letitia Elizabeth Landon 785
English poet and novelist 1802–1838Related quotes

“Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.”
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Trilby (1894). Compare:
:PEU DE CHOSE
La vie est vaine,
Un peu d’amour,
Un peu de haine,
Et puis—Bonjour!
La vie est brève:
Un peu d’espoir,
Un peu de rève
Et puis—Bon soir!
::Léon de Montenaeken; translated by Louise Chandler Moulton as:
:Ah, brief is Life,
Love’s short sweet way,
With dreamings rife,
And then—Good-day!
And Life is vain—
Hope’s vague delight,
Grief’s transient pain,
And then—Good-night.

(21st August 1830) The Legacy of the Roses
The London Literary Gazette, 1830

Source: "Some Perplexities about time: with an attempted solution" (1925), p. 150
Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter IV, "Intellect", p. 385.