Below are a few lines from the latest book I'm reading- Seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey.
Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.Within the freedom to choose are those endowments that make us uniquely human. In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination -- the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality. We have conscience -- a deep inner awareness of right and wrong, of the principles that govern our behavior, and a sense of the degree to which our thoughts and actions are in harmony with them. And we have independent will -- the ability to act based on our self-awareness, free of all other influences. Even the most intelligent animals have none of these endowments.
