I read the following from Dworkin and it reminded me of a poem from Martí. Part of the poem is better known as lyrics of the song “Guantanamera“.

Ronald Dworkin in Justice for Hedgehogs:

“Without dignity our lives are only blinks of duration. But if we manage to lead a good life well, we create something more. We write a subscript to our mortality. We make our lives tiny diamonds in the cosmic sands.”

José Martí in his poem “Yo soy un hombre sincero“:

All is beautiful and right,
All is music and reason;
And, as with diamonds, all light
Was coal before its season.

(Todo es hermoso y constante, Todo es música y razón,
Y todo, como el diamante, Antes que luz es carbón.)