| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: slightly different turn: "Although you may have difficult ground
to traverse and natural obstacles to encounter this is a drawback
which can be turned into actual advantage by celerity of
movement." Signal examples of this saying are afforded by the
two famous passages across the Alps--that of Hannibal, which laid
Italy at his mercy, and that of Napoleon two thousand years
later, which resulted in the great victory of Marengo.]
4. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route, after
enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him,
to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the
artifice of DEVIATION.
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: eyes. Then, looking significantly at each other --
as, according to Cicero, the Roman augurs used
to do -- we would burst out laughing heartily and,
having had our laugh, we would separate, well
content with our evening.
I was lying on a couch, my eyes fixed upon the
ceiling and my hands clasped behind my head,
when Werner entered my room. He sat down in
an easy chair, placed his cane in a corner, yawned,
and announced that it was getting hot out of
doors. I replied that the flies were bothering
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: For an instant she believed that he was going to take her hand;
but he dropped his own hands suddenly into the pockets of his
painting-jacket. "There is no reason why you should n't," he said.
"I have been an adventurer, but my adventures have been very innocent.
They have all been happy ones; I don't think there are any I should n't tell.
They were very pleasant and very pretty; I should like to go over them
in memory. Sit down again, and I will begin," he added in a moment,
with his naturally persuasive smile.
Gertrude sat down again on that day, and she sat down on
several other days. Felix, while he plied his brush, told her
a great many stories, and she listened with charmed avidity.
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