| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: victory. But we must avoid borrowing foreign soldiers to help
us." He then quotes from Wei Liao Tzu, ch. 3: "The nominal
strength of mercenary troops may be 100,000, but their real value
will be not more than half that figure."]
41. He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his
opponents is sure to be captured by them.
[Ch`en Hao, quoting from the TSO CHUAN, says: "If bees and
scorpions carry poison, how much more will a hostile state! Even
a puny opponent, then, should not be treated with contempt."]
42. If soldiers are punished before they have grown
attached to you, they will not prove submissive; and, unless
 The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: Shelton's son, that I had heard it so reported," said Lord Foxham.
"Will it please you, my lord, to alight? I would fain tell you
fully who I am, how situate, and why so bold in my demands.
Beseech you, my lord, take place upon these steps, hear me to a
full end, and judge me with allowance."
And so saying, Dick lent a hand to Lord Foxham to dismount; led him
up the knoll to the cross; installed him in the place where he had
himself been sitting; and standing respectfully before his noble
prisoner, related the story of his fortunes up to the events of the
evening before.
Lord Foxham listened gravely, and when Dick had done, "Master
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: would sooner lose her.'
"Even now, after a lapse of four years, Bianchon still quotes that
speech; we have laughed over it for half an hour together. Claudine,
informed of the verdict, saw in it a proof of affections; she felt
sure that she was loved. In the face of her weeping family, with her
husband on his knees, she was inexorable. She kept the hair. The
strength that came with the belief that she was loved came to her aid,
the operation succeeded perfectly. There are stirrings of the inner
life which throw all the calculations of surgery into disorder and
baffle the laws of medical science.
"Claudine wrote a delicious letter to La Palferine, a letter in which
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