About this quote

What you choose deliberately tends to grip you harder than what you were simply handed at birth. The work of crossing over — weighing it, deciding, breaking from the default — builds a conviction that people raised inside the same belief often stop noticing.

When to use it

• A former couch potato who took up running talks about it more passionately than many lifelong athletes.
• Someone who learned a second language as an adult savors its grammar in ways native speakers overlook.
• A late convert to careful budgeting guards every dollar more fiercely than someone raised frugal.