“Where you are stuck from birth with a sample of the genes that made up your parents, you can sample throughout your life from a sea of evolving ideas.”
– Mark Pagel
What makes you who you are?
Mark Pagel is an evolutionary biologist and this quote comes from the opening chapter of his book, Wired for Culture (2012).
I like this quote because it shows we are not always limited by our biology but we can define, refine, re-define who we are, over and over again throughout our lives.
The basis for this define/re-define cycle will be our experience and what new ideas we expose ourselves to.
Not everyone has the fortune and opportunity to do this in the world, so those of us who can should be grateful we have the opportunity and we should strive not to waste that opportunity.