Whereas the cleverer we become, the less we understand the meaning of life and the more we see some wicked mockery in the fact that we suffer and die, these people live, suffer and draw near to death with calm, and more often than not with joy

Whereas the cleverer we become, the less we understand the meaning of life and the more we see some wicked mockery in the fact that we suffer and die, these people live, suffer and draw near to death with calm, and more often than not with joy. Whereas a calm death, a death without horror and despair, is the rarest of exceptions in our circle, a death that is uncalm, unsubmissive and joyless is the rarest of exceptions among the people. And of such people, deprived of all that is for Solomon and me the sole good of life, and yet experiencing in this the greatest happiness, there are a great many... And all of them, infinitely various in temper, intellect, education and station, all alike and in complete contrast to my ignorance knew the meaning of life and death, toiled calmly, bore privation and suffering, lived and died, seeing in this not vanity but good

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy