Leo Tolstoy Quote

Each man lives for himself, uses his freedom to achieve his personal goals, and feels with his whole being that right now he can or cannot do such-and-such an action; but as soon as he does it, this action, committed at a certain moment in time, becomes irreversible, and makes itself the property of history, in which is has not a free but a predestined significance.

War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (ed. Vintage, 2011) - ISBN: 9780307806581