Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences. As Ortega y Gasset said: "Tell me to what you pay attention, and I will tell you who you are."  - W. H. Auden

From the introduction to Maria Konnikova's fantastic Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes.