« Blade of Grass »

From a letter by Vincent Van Gogh to Theo (his brother), Sept 24, 1888:

If we study Japanese art, we discover a [mind] who is undeniably wise... who spends [...] time - doing what? Studying the distance from the earth to the moon? No! Studying the politics [...]? No! [He/she] studies... a single blade of grass. <...> That is how [he/she] spends [...] life, and life is too short to do [draw] everything.

(note: I "tuned" this a bit to make it more P.C./more readable for 21st century mind and to accentuate the point I meant to extact from this passage)