| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not
the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the
Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a
bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities
brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should
not make an ado about it, for I can do without them.
All machines have their friction; and possibly this does
enough good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is
a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction
comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are
organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer.
 On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: the boiling lard in't, or some mischief as 'ull lame her for life;
an' it'll be all your fault, Dinah."
"Aunt," said Dinah, "I promise to come back to you in the winter
if you're ill. Don't think I will ever stay away from you if
you're in real want of me. But, indeed, it is needful for my own
soul that I should go away from this life of ease and luxury in
which I have all things too richly to enjoy--at least that I
should go away for a short space. No one can know but myself what
are my inward needs, and the besetments I am most in danger from.
Your wish for me to stay is not a call of duty which I refuse to
hearken to because it is against my own desires; it is a
 Adam Bede |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: One way he knows to give her pain;
Vows on Vanessa's heart to take
Due vengeance, for her patron's sake.
Those early seeds by Venus sown,
In spite of Pallas, now were grown;
And Cupid hoped they would improve
By time, and ripen into love.
The boy made use of all his craft,
In vain discharging many a shaft,
Pointed at colonels, lords, and beaux;
Cadenus warded off the blows,
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