Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself

If I have to elaborate this phrase in philosophical terms, it would literally dry my brains out. So let me just explain this in the most common and comprehensible way that it would not sound alien.

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. In my own understanding, man (meaning we, people) is a product of his own decisions. What we do with our lives and how we do it is ultimately up to us. This means that if we start smoking or do dugs, then we unconsciously or consciously put our health in danger. Although most of the time we have reasons for doing these. And we let ourselves be governed by these reasons, which make that choice driven by something else, or it is predetermined.

Although we are all free to make a choice for ourselves, we are still bound by laws which limit our choices. For instance, if I decide to kill someone because I hate them, I can freely do so, but on the other hand I can’t, because it is nature’s law that we don’t have the right to take another man’s life and in man’s law it is punishable and a mortal sin. Therefore I won’t kill a man even if I hate them so much.

I hope I’m explaining this well, after all, this is how I understand it. (smirk’s)

Destiny is what most people believe in, but for me, destiny is a concrete example of life being predetermined. If we are destined for something, then what we do or the choices we make don’t matter at all, because we (man), are what they say, destined for it. But in reality, we reap what we sow, we are what we eat. Even Superman chose to save the human race even though he was destined to conquer Earth. (A big fan of the man of steel)

More often than not, we tend to limit our God given potentials and capabilities by getting bothered by how other people see us or what they think of us. If we just let ourselves go on with our lives unaffected by others criticisms, we probably would dare to do things we haven’t even thought possible.

When you realize you are choosing something, you have more of a choice. And that’s what makes man nothing else but himself. In my world, I have always believed in the saying that… “It’s not important what you choose, but why you chose it”. Basically live your life for your own reasons and the rest doesn’t matter, even if it is predetermined.

This is my best understanding of the quote: “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself”

By: Emory Anthony Juansengpue