Brevity is the sister of talent.

-Chekhov, Anton
  Letter to  Alexander Chekhov,11  Apr.

   What is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'Epigram'.

Ceux qui emploient mal leur temps sont les premiers a'   se plaindre de sa brie'  vete¤  . Those who make poor use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.

-La Bruye'  re,Jean de
  Les Caracte'  res ou les m½urs de ce sie'  cle,'Des jugements', no.101.

Brevity is the soul of lingerie, as the Petticoat said to the Chemise.

-Parker, Dorothy ne¤  e Rothschild
  Caption forVogue. Quoted inJ Keats You Might asWell Live (1970).

Concerning the gods I am not in a position to know either that they are or that they are not, or what theyare like in appearance; for there are many things that are preventing knowledge, the obscurity of the matter and the brevity of human life.

-Protagoras
Quoted in G B Kerferd The Sophistic Movement (1981), ch.13.