fleeting sweetness of love

'Button' Bends Time Into Grand Fable

"Benjamin Button" is a one-of-a-kind meditation on mortality and the fleeting sweetness of love, writes Joe Morgenstern.

Mr Wen’s embrace of a style of leadership more commonly associated with politicians in democratic countries, worried about their election prospects, is unlikely to be the action of an individual. Chinese leaders do not make such radical shifts from usual practice without a great deal of thought and a meeting of at least some members of the nine-man Politburo Standing Committee that rules China.

The question now will be whether the Prime Minister’s man-of-the-people image will translate into real policies for change. The leader insisted that this was no fleeting policy.

fleet (QUICK) Hide phonetics
adjective LITERARY
able to run quickly:
She was slight and fleet of foot/fleet-footed.

fleeting Hide phonetics
adjective
brief or quick:
a fleeting glimpse
This is just a fleeting visit.

fleetingly Hide phonetics
adverb
I glimpsed her fleetingly through the window.