| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: the principles that in a house create love, in a city concord,
among nations peace, teaching a man gratitude towards God and
cheerful confidence, wherever he may be, in dealing with outward
things that he knows are neither his nor worth striving after.
CXLIX
If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by
every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not
fear being defeated.
CL
What foolish talk is this? how can I any longer lay claim to
right principles, if I am not content with being what I am, but
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: ship, faced each other in identical attitudes.
"Your ladder - " he murmured, after a silence. "Who'd have thought
of finding a ladder hanging over at night in a ship anchored out
here! I felt just then a very unpleasant faintness. After the
life I've been leading for nine weeks, anybody would have got out
of condition. I wasn't capable of swimming round as far as your
rudder-chains. And, lo and behold! there was a ladder to get hold
of. After I gripped it I said to myself, 'What's the good?' When
I saw a man's head looking over I thought I would swim away
presently and leave him shouting - in whatever language it was. I
didn't mind being looked at. I - I liked it. And then you
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: night and day it was only this much to them--"Ah, she
makes herself unhappy." If she tried to be cheerful,
to dismiss all care, to take pleasure in the daylight,
the flowers, the baby, she could only be this idea to
them--"Ah, she bears it very well." Moreover, alone in
a desert island would she have been wretched at what
had happened to her? Not greatly. If she could have
been but just created, to discover herself as a
spouseless mother, with no experience of life except as
the parent of a nameless child, would the position have
caused her to despair? No, she would have taken it
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
