| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: as may be.
CLXVII
Banquets of the unlearned and of them that are without,
avoid. But if you have occasion to take part in them, let not
your attention be relaxed for a moment, lest you slip after all
into evil ways. For you may rest assured that be a man ever so
pure himself, he cannot escape defilement if his associates are
impure.
CLXVIII
Take what relates to the body as far as the bare use
warrants--as meat, drink, raiment, house and servants. But all
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: myself?[2]
[2] Or, "would you oblige me by explaining certain matters, as to
which your knowledge naturally transcends my own?"
And pray, what sort of things may those be (answered Hiero), of which
I can have greater knowledge than yourself, who are so wise a man?
I know (replied the poet) that you were once a private person,[3] and
are now a monarch. It is but likely, therefore, that having tested
both conditions,[4] you should know better than myself, wherein the
life of the despotic ruler differs from the life of any ordinary
person, looking to the sum of joys and sorrows to which flesh is heir.
[3] Or, "a common citizen," "an ordinary mortal," "a private
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: Bedford to give me a living, I prepared myself to do any kind of
work that came to hand. I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars,
moved rubbish from back yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and
unloaded vessels, and scoured their cabins.
I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr. Richmond.
My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane, and empty the flasks
in which castings were made; and at times this was hot and heavy work.
The articles produced here were mostly for ship work, and in the busy season
the foundry was in operation night and day. I have often worked two nights
and every working day of the week. My foreman, Mr. Cobb, was a good man,
and more than once protected me from abuse that one or more of the hands
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