| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: disciplines loins and shoulders, does me good, . . . while he
that trains me to keep my temper does me none? This is what it
means, not knowing how to gain advantage from men! Is my
neighbour bad? Bad to himself, but good to me: he brings my good
temper, my gentleness into play. Is my father bad? Bad to
himself, but good to me. This is the rod of Hermes; touch what
you will with it, they say, and it becomes gold. Nay, but bring
what you will and I will transmute it into Good. Bring sickness,
bring death, bring poverty and reproach, bring trial for life--
all these things through the rod of Hermes shall be turned to
profit.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable
degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so
very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot
govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles
with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months
for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more
to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly
and childishness--There was a time when it was proper,
and there is a proper time for it to cease.
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves,
are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care;
Common Sense |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: duty to go to her, since she did not come to him. He would
ask Eustacia to agree with him in his self-condemnation;
and when she, seared inwardly by a secret she dared not tell,
declared that she could not give an opinion, he would say,
"That's because you didn't know my mother's nature.
She was always ready to forgive if asked to do so;
but I seemed to her to be as an obstinate child, and that
made her unyielding. Yet not unyielding--she was proud
and reserved, no more....Yes, I can understand why she
held out against me so long. She was waiting for me.
I dare say she said a hundred times in her sorrow, 'What a
Return of the Native |
