We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch, or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death.
But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or adrift.
We decide what is important and what is trivial in life.
We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do.
But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make.
We decide. We choose.
And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed.
In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.
Joseph Epstein
