| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: us is true, and defended the continent at our expense as well
as her own is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey
from the same motive, viz. the sake of trade and dominion.
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices,
and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted
the protection of Great Britain, without considering,
that her motive was INTEREST not ATTACHMENT; that she
did not protect us from OUR ENEMIES on OUR ACCOUNT,
but from HER ENEMIES on HER OWN ACCOUNT, from those
who had no quarrel with us on any OTHER ACCOUNT,
and who will always be our enemies on the SAME ACCOUNT.
Common Sense |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision
of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a
majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written Constitutional right,
it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution--certainly would if such
a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of
minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations
and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that
controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be
framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may
occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate,
nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: And to speak compendiously, if it were obvious in each department that
the introducer of any salutary measure whatsoever will not remain
unhonoured, that in itself will stimulate a host of pople who will
make it their business to discover some good thing or other for the
state. Wherever matters of advantage to the state excite deep
interest, of necessity discoveries are made more freely and more
promptly perfected. But if you are afraid, O mighty prince, that
through the multitude of prizes offered[23] under many heads, expenses
also must be much increased, consider that no articles of commerce can
be got more cheaply than those which people purchase in exchange for
prizes. Note in the public contests (choral, equestrian, or
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