| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: that I am a haughty Aexonian.
SOCRATES: Do not answer him, Laches; I rather fancy that you are not aware
of the source from which his wisdom is derived. He has got all this from
my friend Damon, and Damon is always with Prodicus, who, of all the
Sophists, is considered to be the best puller to pieces of words of this
sort.
LACHES: Yes, Socrates; and the examination of such niceties is a much more
suitable employment for a Sophist than for a great statesman whom the city
chooses to preside over her.
SOCRATES: Yes, my sweet friend, but a great statesman is likely to have a
great intelligence. And I think that the view which is implied in Nicias'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth
is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft
and humble. Your head is high, but our
brothers cringe. You walk, but our
brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you,
rather than blessed with all our brothers.
Do as you please with us, but do not send
us away from you."
Then they knelt, and bowed their golden
head before us.
We had never thought of that which we did.
Anthem |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: learned to please her by making signs of hushed stillness, that they
might listen for the note to come again: so that when it came, she
set up her small back and laughed with gurgling triumph. Sitting on
the banks in this way, Silas began to look for the once familiar
herbs again; and as the leaves, with their unchanged outline and
markings, lay on his palm, there was a sense of crowding
remembrances from which he turned away timidly, taking refuge in
Eppie's little world, that lay lightly on his enfeebled spirit.
As the child's mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing
into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a
cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into
Silas Marner |
