| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: into the dining-room, she called to her to bring some stamps into
the boudoir.
"Yes, m'm." The old servant hesitated, then added diffidently:
"Don't you think, m'm, you'd better get to bed? You're looking
very tired."
"Perhaps you're right, Dorcas--yes--no--not now. I've some
letters I must finish by post-time. Have you lighted the fire in
my room as I told you?"
"Yes, m'm."
"Then I'll go to bed directly after supper."
She went into the boudoir again, and Cynthia stared after her.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in
you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it
had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to
convey. Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an
elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate
formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he
introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his
words with care.
Almost at the moment when Mr. Gatsby identified himself, a butler
hurried toward him with the information that Chicago was calling him on
the wire. He excused himself with a small bow that included each of us
The Great Gatsby |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non-age of a nation.
With the increase of commerce, England hath lost its spirit. The city
of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults
with the patience of a coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing
are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit
to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a Spaniel.
Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.
It might be difficult, if not impossible, to form the Continent into one
government half a century hence. The vast variety of interests,
occasioned by an increase of trade and population, would create confusion.
Colony would be against colony. Each being able might scorn each other's
Common Sense |
