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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: flatter, and dissemble? To consent to be the servant of others
who have likewise fawned, and lied, and flattered? Must I cringe
to them before I can hope to be their accomplice? Well, then, I
decline. I mean to work nobly and with a single heart. I will
work day and night; I will owe my fortune to nothing but my own
exertions. It may be the slowest of all roads to success, but I
shall lay my head on the pillow at night untroubled by evil
thoughts. Is there a greater thing than this--to look back over
your life and know that it is stainless as a lily? I and my life
are like a young man and his betrothed. Vautrin has put before me
all that comes after ten years of marriage. The devil! my head is
Father Goriot |
