| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: WRITTEN BY NICOLO MACHIAVELLI
And sent to his friends
ZANOBI BUONDELMONTI
And
LUIGI ALAMANNI
CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI
1284-1328
It appears, dearest Zanobi and Luigi, a wonderful thing to those who
have considered the matter, that all men, or the larger number of
them, who have performed great deeds in the world, and excelled all
others in their day, have had their birth and beginning in baseness
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: the Knights, appointed on that occasion at the foot of the tower, was
soon assailed with the whispered question, "What are we to do to-
night?"
"Here's Pere Fario's cart," he answered. "I nearly cracked my shins
over it. Let us get it up on the embankment of the tower in the first
place, and we'll make up our minds afterwards."
When Richard Coeur-de-Lion built the tower of Issoudun he raised it,
as we have said, on the ruins of the basilica, which itself stood
above the Roman temple and the Celtic Dun. These ruins, each of which
represents a period of several centuries, form a mound big with the
monuments of three distinct ages. The tower is, therefore, the apex of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: closely watched by the police, he is protected by the respect and
good-will of the rector; for he has really repented. His conduct at
the galleys was exemplary. Everybody knows he is as honest as the most
honest man among us. Only he is proud; he doesn't choose to expose
himself to rebuff; so he lives quietly by himself and does good in his
own way. He has made a nursery of about ten acres for you on the other
side of the Roche-Vive; he plants in the forests wherever he thinks
there's a chance of making a tree grow; he trims the tree and cuts out
the dead wood, and ties it up into bundles for the poor. All the poor
people know they can get their wood from him all cut and ready to
burn; so they go and ask him for it, instead of taking it themselves
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