It is what we are forced to ...

It is what we are forced to do that forms our character, not what we do of our own free will.
 Alberto Moravia

Quotes from the same author

Yes, one uses what one knows, but autobiography means something else. I should never be able to write a real autobiography; I always end by falsifying and fictionalizing—I’m a liar, in fact. That means I’m a novelist, after all. I write about what I know.
 Alberto Moravia
Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation in turn becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources - and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on in the future.
 Alberto Moravia
There are many reasons for keeping a diary: to make a note of facts that one considers important; to open one's heart, to give vent to one's feelings, to make confessions; from the instinct of economy which sometimes encourages a writer to make good use of even the smallest crumbs of his life, so that he may have one more book to publish; or again from vanity and self- satisfaction.
 Alberto Moravia
Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.
 Alberto Moravia