| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: already worked out in his mind the details of a clever stratagem,
whereby, as he foresaw, he was able to capture the city and
inflict a crushing defeat on his adversary."]
9. Neither is it the acme of excellence if you fight and
conquer and the whole Empire says, "Well done!"
[True excellence being, as Tu Mu says: "To plan secretly,
to move surreptitiously, to foil the enemy's intentions and balk
his schemes, so that at last the day may be won without shedding
a drop of blood." Sun Tzu reserves his approbation for things
that
"the world's coarse thumb
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: time to time into the geography-book that lay open before him. By the next
morning he was to have learnt all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know
about them all that is possible to be known.
His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta on her
arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he pretty nearly
read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his mother had no money
to buy a candle.
"There goes the old washerwoman over the way," said his mother, as she looked
out of the window. "The poor woman can hardly drag herself along, and she must
now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy, Tukey, and run across
and help the old woman, won't you?"
Fairy Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: aversion to talk, and the conversation, like an expiring breeze,
kept on dying out repeatedly after each languid gust. The large
silence of the horizon, the profound repose of all things
visible, enveloping the bodies and penetrating the souls with
their quieting influence, stilled thought as well as voice. For a
long time no one spoke. Behind the taciturnity of the masters the
servants hovered without noise.
Suddenly, Mr. Travers, as if concluding a train of thought,
muttered aloud:
"I own with regret I did in a measure lose my temper; but then
you will admit that the existence of such a man is a disgrace to
The Rescue |
