We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;

How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,

Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon

Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mutability” (1816)

“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”

—Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby (1844)