is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which
are not is something one soon enough learns on one's own. But even the
most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for
a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women
are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely
to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence,
interest in attainment, and regard for posterity. 
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 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 in drift. 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.