| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said
before, a prince wishing to keep his state is very often forced to do
evil; for when that body is corrupt whom you think you have need of to
maintain yourself--it may be either the people or the soldiers or the
nobles--you have to submit to its humours and to gratify them, and
then good works will do you harm.
But let us come to Alexander, who was a man of such great goodness,
that among the other praises which are accorded him is this, that in
the fourteen years he held the empire no one was ever put to death by
him unjudged; nevertheless, being considered effeminate and a man who
allowed himself to be governed by his mother, he became despised, the
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: finitimis imperavit ut ab iniuria et maleficio se suosque prohiberent.
Atuatuci, de quibus supra diximus, cum omnibus copiis auxilio Nerviis
venirent, hac pugna nuntiata ex itinere domum reverterunt; cunctis oppidis
castellisque desertis sua omnia in unum oppidum egregie natura munitum
contulerunt. Quod cum ex omnibus in circuitu partibus altissimas rupes
deiectusque haberet, una ex parte leniter acclivis aditus in latitudinem
non amplius pedum CC relinquebatur; quem locum duplici altissimo muro
munierant; tum magni ponderis saxa et praeacutas trabes in muro
conlocabant. Ipsi erant ex Cimbris Teutonisque prognati, qui, cum iter in
provinciam nostram atque Italiam; facerent, iis impedimentis quae secum
agere ac portare non poterant citra flumen Rhenum depositis custodiae [ex
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: And every season but made it worse.
As a last resort, to clear the doubt,
They got old GOVERNOR HANCOCK out.
The Governor came, with his Light-horse Troop
And his mounted truckmen, all cock-a-hoop;
Halberds glittered and colors flew,
French horns whinnied and trumpets blew,
The yellow fifes whistled between their teeth
And the bumble-bee bass-drums boomed beneath;
So he rode with all his band,
Till the President met him, cap in hand.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
