| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: grey and bent. They gave the signal to the
two strong hooded ones.
They tore the clothes from our body,
they threw us down upon our knees and
they tied our hands to the iron post.
The first blow of the lash felt as if our
spine had been cut in two. The second
blow stopped the first, and for a second we
felt nothing, then the pain struck us in our
throat and fire ran in our lungs without air.
But we did not cry out.
 Anthem |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: absolutely certain that the so-called Vautrin, who lodges at the
Maison Vauquer, is a convict who escaped from penal servitude at
Toulon, where he is known by the nickname Trompe-la-Mort."
"Trompe-la-Mort?" said Pioret. "Dear me, he is very lucky if he
deserves that nickname."
"Well, yes," said the detective. "They call him so because he has
been so lucky as not to lose his life in the very risky
businesses that he has carried through. He is a dangerous man,
you see! He has qualities that are out of the common; the thing
he is wanted for, in fact, was a matter which gained him no end
of credit with his own set----"
 Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: He was hot.
"What a road!" he said, and laughed again. "It would soon smash
up one's carriage."
"Nobody obliges you to drive about in such weather," said Semyon
surlily. "You should stay at home."
"I am dull at home, grandfather. I don't like staying at home."
Beside old Semyon he looked graceful and vigorous, but yet in his
walk there was something just perceptible which betrayed in him a
being already touched by decay, weak, and on the road to ruin.
And all at once there was a whiff of spirits in the wood. Marya
Vassilyevna was filled with dread and pity for this man going to
 The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |