| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Koran: parents show kindness, and to kindred, and orphans, and the poor, and'
the neighbour who is akin, and the neighbour who is a stranger, and
the companion who is strange, and the son of the road, and what your
right hands possess, verily, God loves not him who is proud and
boastful; who are miserly and bid men be miserly too, and who hide
what God has given them of His grace;- but we have prepared for the
misbelievers shameful woe.
And those who expend their wealth in alms for appearance sake before
men, and who believe not in God nor in the last day;- but whosoever
has Satan for his mate, an evil mate has he.
What harm would it do them if they believed in God and in the last
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: Plato are at least as paradoxical to us as they were to his contemporaries.
The modern world has either sneered at them as absurd, or denounced them as
unnatural and immoral; men have been pleased to find in Aristotle's
criticisms of them the anticipation of their own good sense. The wealthy
and cultivated classes have disliked and also dreaded them; they have
pointed with satisfaction to the failure of efforts to realize them in
practice. Yet since they are the thoughts of one of the greatest of human
intelligences, and of one who had done most to elevate morality and
religion, they seem to deserve a better treatment at our hands. We may
have to address the public, as Plato does poetry, and assure them that we
mean no harm to existing institutions. There are serious errors which have
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: equality civil wars will become much less frequent and less
protracted. *c
[Footnote c: It should be borne in mind that I speak here of
sovereign and independent democratic nations, not of confederate
democracies; in confederacies, as the preponderating power always
resides, in spite of all political fictions, in the state
governments, and not in the federal government, civil wars are in
fact nothing but foreign wars in disguise.]
Book Four - Chapters I-IV
Influence Of Democratic Opinions On Political Society
Chapter I: That Equality Naturally Gives Men A Taste For Free
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