“人最宝贵的是生命，生命属于每个人只有一次。一个人的生命应当这样度过：‘当他回首往事，他不因虚度年华而悔恨，也不因
碌碌无为而羞耻。这样在他临死的时候，就能够说，我已把整个
生命和全部精力献给了最壮丽的事业-----为人类解放而斗争。’”

"A person's dearest possession is life. It is given to him/her but once, and s/he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, s/he might say: All my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for Liberation of Humankind. And one must make use of every moment of life, lest some sudden illness or tragic accident cut it short."
- Nikolai Ostrovsky, How the Steel was Tempered, Progress Publishers, 1933 (gender-corrected).

http://home.earthlink.net/~twoeyesmagazine/issue2/moments2.htm