We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Wilder’s line equates “being alive” not with mere biological existence but with heightened awareness—those rare instants when we recognize what we most value (“our treasures”). The emphasis on the heart suggests an affective, not purely intellectual, consciousness: gratitude, love, and attention are what make life feel fully real. The quote also implies how easily life can be lived in distraction or numb routine; vitality depends on perceiving meaning in what we already possess—people, time, beauty, memory—rather than on acquiring more. In Wilder’s broader humanistic outlook, such moments of recognition are morally and spiritually significant, because they reconnect us to what is enduring amid the ordinary.