| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Paradise Lost by John Milton: Think only what concerns thee, and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition, or degree;
Contented that thus far hath been revealed
Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.
To whom thus Adam, cleared of doubt, replied.
How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure
Intelligence of Heaven, Angel serene!
And, freed from intricacies, taught to live
The easiest way; nor with perplexing thoughts
To interrupt the sweet of life, from which
Paradise Lost |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
Yet neither conqueror nor conquered;
So is the equal poise of this fell war.
Here on this molehill will I sit me down.
To whom God will, there be the victory!
For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too,
Have chid me from the battle, swearing both
They prosper best of all when I am thence.
Would I were dead! if God's good will were so;
For what is in this world but grief and woe?
O God! methinks it were a happy life,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: little private discipline, wait till you are choking with heat
some day--then take a mouthful of cold water, and spit it out
again, and tell no man!"
CI
Study how to give as one that is sick: that thou mayest
hereafter give as one that is whole. Fast; drink water only;
abstain altogether from desire, that thou mayest hereafter
conform thy desire to Reason.
CII
Thou wouldst do good unto men? then show them by thine own
example what kind of men philosophy can make, and cease from
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
