What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realizes itself.

Jameson’s aphorism treats aspiration as more than a wish for a future self: it is a present moral and psychological act that already reshapes identity. To “truly and earnestly aspire” is to orient the will and attention toward an ideal; that inward reorientation alters one’s “frame of mind” immediately—how one perceives, judges, and chooses. In that limited but real sense, the desired character is partially instantiated in the act of desiring it sincerely. The claim also implies an ethical standard: only earnest aspiration has this transformative power, distinguishing it from idle fantasy. The quote thus links self-cultivation to interior discipline, suggesting that becoming begins in the moment the mind commits itself.