The quote is notable because it is something our society does not understand as a rule. Certainly doctors, lawyers, and law makers have no clue. They all hide dealing with it in the depths of voluntary ignorance and religious dogma. Quality is more important than quantity. Stalin's idea that quantity has a quality all its own does not apply to life.
Survival is insufficient.
It takes more than simply being alive to have a life. Among other things this leads to the conclusion that doctors don't save lives. That is not the same thing as living. As Harlan Elison once noted, Science Fiction is the only truely optimistic form of liturature. It assumes there's a future.