A Life

"People ask: 'Why do children or young people die, when they have lived so little?' How do you know that they have lived little? This crude measure of yours is time, but life is not measured in time. This is just the same as to say: 'Why is this saying, this poem, this picture, this piece of music so short, why was it broken off and not drawn out to the size of the longest speech or piece of music, the largest picture?' As the measure of length is inapplicable to the meaning (or greatness) of productions of wisdom or poetry, so—even more evidently—is it inapplicable to life. How do you know what inner growth this soul accomplished in its short span, and what influence it had upon others? Spiritual life cannot be measured by a physical measure." - Leo Tolstoy