every single one of us can look back at our ancestors and make the following proud claim: not a single one of my ancestors died young. Plenty of individuals died young, but they are not the ones that became ancestors. Not a single one of your ancestors fell over a cliff, or was eaten by a lion, or died of cancer, before living long enough to have at least one child.
Outgrowing God
Richard Dawkins
Take a moment to think about the context in which your next decision will occur: You did not pick your parents or the time and place of your birth. You didn’t choose your gender or most of your life experiences. You had no control whatsoever over your genome or the development of your brain. And now your brain is making choices on the basis of preferences and beliefs that have been hammered into it over a lifetime—by your genes, your physical development since the moment you were conceived, and the interactions you have had with other people, events, and ideas. Where is the freedom in this? Yes, you are free to do what you want even now. But where did your desires come from?
Free Will
Sam Harris
Exercise is mandatory during a long-duration flight: we’d waste away, literally, if we didn’t do it. We have to work out two hours a day to keep our muscles and bones strong enough to handle the extreme physical demands of spacewalking and also to ensure that when we do get back to Earth, we are still able to stand on our own two feet.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
Chris Hadfield
Everyone has the power to make little choices that can alter their lives forever. You can either choose to give in to inertia and continue waiting in line for the First Door, or you can choose to jump out of line, run down the alley, and take the Third Door. We all have that choice.
The Third Door
Alex Banayan
I learned that there was a reason the film was specifically about toys, and not about animals or people. Toys are made of plastic. They have uniform surfaces. No variation. No skin. No clothing that needs to wrinkle with every movement.
To Pixar and Beyond
Lawrence Levy