One of my favorite quotes. So incisive; there's an ocean of wisdom condensed into it:
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.” - Viktor Frankl
From a spiritual point of view, we must become fully conscious of, and increasingly identified with, this inner "space" between stimulus and response (the field of pure conscious awareness, from which all thought arises) in order to discover who we truly are; it is the ultimate gateway to peace, joy, fulfillment, and empowered freedom.