| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: seen how I order my battles, you who conveniently allow Barbarians--"
"Enough! enough!"
He went on in a low voice so as to make himself the better listened
to:
"Oh! that is true! I am wrong, lights of the Baals; there are intrepid
men among you! Gisco, rise!" And surveying the step of the altar with
half-closed eyelids, as if he sought for some one, he repeated:
"Rise, Gisco! You can accuse me; they will protect you! But where is
he?" Then, as if he remembered himself: "Ah! in his house, no doubt!
surrounded by his sons, commanding his slaves, happy, and counting on
the wall the necklaces of honour which his country has given to him!"
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Lear by William Shakespeare: Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?
Edm. Himself. What say'st thou to him?
Edg. Draw thy sword,
That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.
Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
My oath, and my profession. I protest-
Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
Thy valour and thy heart- thou art a traitor;
False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
King Lear |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: virtues on account of which we hold our grandfathers in esteem
and also at a little distance from us. We Europeans of the day
after tomorrow, we firstlings of the twentieth century--with all
our dangerous curiosity, our multifariousness and art of
disguising, our mellow and seemingly sweetened cruelty in sense
and spirit--we shall presumably, IF we must have virtues, have
those only which have come to agreement with our most secret and
heartfelt inclinations, with our most ardent requirements: well,
then, let us look for them in our labyrinths!--where, as we know,
so many things lose themselves, so many things get quite lost!
And is there anything finer than to SEARCH for one's own virtues?
Beyond Good and Evil |
