People ask why young people die
when they have lived so little.
How do you know they have lived so 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 largest speech?
Or a piece of music or the largest picture?
As the measure of length is inapplicable
to the meaning of greatness of productions of wisdom or poetry.
So even more evidently
it is inapplicable to life.
How do you know what inner growth this soul accomplished in its short span
and what influences it had on other people?
Spiritual life cannot be measured by a physical measure.
Leo Tolstoy