here today, gone tomorrow

here today, gone tomorrow idiom
Lacking permanence, fleeting. For example, His book attracted a great deal of attention but quickly went out of print—here today and gone tomorrow. Originally alluding to the briefness of the human lifespan, this phrase was first recorded in John Calvin's Life and Conversion of a Christian Man (1549): “This proverb that man is here today and gone tomorrow.”

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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