“The flowers flashed before they faded. She watched them flash.”

— Virginia Woolf , book Between the Acts

Between the Acts (1941)

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Virginia Woolf 382

English writer 1882–1941

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“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.”

Gerard Way (1977) American musician and comic book writer

“I watched my life fade-away in a flash
A quarter of a century dash through closets full of candles with never a room
For rapture through a kingdom had been captured.”

Phil Ochs (1940–1976) American protest singer and songwriter

Source: Pleasures of the Harbor (1967), Liner notes; part of this statement is often paraphrased "In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty."
Context: I watched my life fade-away in a flash
A quarter of a century dash through closets full of candles with never a room
For rapture through a kingdom had been captured.
And so I turn away from my drizzling furniture and pass old ladies
Sniffling by movie stars' tombs, yes I must be home again soon.
To face the unspoken unguarded thoughts of habitual hearts
A vanguard of electricians a village full of tarts
Who say you must protest you must protest
It is your diamond duty…
Ah but in such an ugly time the true protest is beauty
And the bleeding seer crawled from the ruins of the empire
And stood bleeding, bleeding on the border
He said, passion has led to chaos and now chaos will lead to order.
Oh I have been away for a while and I hope to be back again soon.

“Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent — a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Entry (1961)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent — a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it. One must know how to catch and preserve these scant flakes of gold sluiced out of the sand and rocks of everyday life. Originality does not come nugget-size.

“We were brought up watching opening batsmen score nine before lunch. If Geoffrey Boycott flashed at a ball outside off stump in the first over of a Test match, questions were asked in Parliament. If he flashed at two, the ravens abandoned the Tower of London.”

Geoff Boycott (1940) cricket player of England

Brian Viner in the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/its-cricket-geoff-but-not-as-we-know-it-503579.html, 2005.

“Before the flowers of friendship faded friendship faded.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

This phrase was used as the title of a work published in 1931, but was originally used in Ch. LXII of A Novel of Thank You, written in 1925-1926, but not published until 1958 by the Yale University Press

“Give me lust, baby.
Flash.
Give me malice.
Flash.
Give me detached existentialist ennui.
Flash.
Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism.
Flash.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”

Terry Pratchett book The Last Continent

General sources
Variant: It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. This is in fact true. It's called living.
Source: The Last Continent