“Truly, human life is as ephemeral as dew and as brief as lightning.”
In a Grove (1922), quoted in A Study Guide for Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "In a Grove" https://books.google.it/books?id=EAPQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT13 (Gale, 2017).
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Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 2
Japanese writer 1892–1927Related quotes

“What is not ephemeral in individual life, if life itself is fleeting like a dream.”

The Cosmos as a Poem (2010)

“A government cannot be truly just without affirming the intrinsic value of human life.”
Source: God and Government: An Insider's View on the Boundaries between Faith and Politics

"Irish Essays. Ecce, Convertimur ad Gentes" (1882)

“Life, struck sharp on death,
Makes awful lightning.”
Bk. I, l. 210-214.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Context: Life, struck sharp on death,
Makes awful lightning. His last word was, 'Love–'
'Love, my child, love, love!'–(then he had done with grief)
'Love, my child.' Ere I answered he was gone,
And none was left to love in all the world.

“To live your brief life rightly, isn't that enough?”
Hays translation
Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book X, 31

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”
45
The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)