“Our days, our deeds, all we achieve or are,
Lay folded in our infancy; the things
Of good or ill we choose while yet unborn.”

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), Politics

Source: Julian and Maddalo http://www.bartleby.com/139/shel115.html (1819), l. 170

Source: Adam Bede (1859)
Context: Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds...

1900s, Inaugural Address (1905)
Context: The conditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individual initiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success of our experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but as regards the welfare of mankind. If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn.

The Doctrine of Repentance (1668)

Le sort fait les parents, le choix fait les amis.
Malheur at Pitié (1803), canto I.

The Art of Loving (1956)
Context: The lack of objectivity, as far as foreign nations are concerned, is notorious. From one day to another, another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one’s own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard — every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals which they serve.

"Kremlin Tells Russians: Don’t Worry, This War Will ‘Make Your Lives Better’" https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-tells-russians-not-to-worry-this-will-make-your-lives-better, The Daily Beast, 17 May 2022
CNN Interview (March 2022)