And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
This is a phrase I use at funerals on a fairly regular basis. We too often assume that someone who lived a long life got a fair shake and those who died younger were cheated. The fair or cheated aspect of life has more to do with our response to life rather than the things that happen to us.
This quote reminds me of a similar quote by Mark Twain:
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain
Call me odd, but I think of wolverines and shrews with this quote. Small animals that pack a punch compared to animals much larger. Both can fight off large potentially more dangerous predators and bring down prey much large than themselves.
Finally from the back of my office door:
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation. -Sir Walter Scott
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