Life consists not in holding good cards
but in playing those you hold well.
- Josh Billings
You play the hand you're dealt.
I think the game's worthwhile.
- Christopher Reeve
All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams,
whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about.
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch,
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 and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
- Joseph Epstein
Customs form us all.
Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed beliefs,
are consequences of our place of birth.
- Aaron Hill
Yet within these quite extreme constraints, progress, success, and happiness are still possible.
We all have free will, but only within the harsh constraints of predestination.
Within the limits placed upon our lives by the circumstances of our genes,
our place and condition of birth, the parenting we receive, and other events beyond our control,
we are defined by the free will we can still exercise.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Our circumstances define the playing field, not the outcome.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Further reading:
Do What You Can Do
Choose to Soar
Making Dreams Come True
