We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

The line suggests that emotional outcomes are not purely accidental or imposed from outside, but are partly shaped by earlier choices—our values, attachments, expectations, and the narratives we adopt about ourselves. “Long before” implies a slow, cumulative process: we cultivate the conditions for joy or sorrow through what we pursue, what we fear, and what we refuse to let go. Read in a Gibran-like, spiritual-psychological key, it also hints at fate or inner destiny: the soul’s predispositions may “select” experiences before they arrive. The aphorism thus balances responsibility (we participate in making our feelings) with inevitability (our deeper nature steers us toward certain joys and griefs).