| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are
all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness.
After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from
immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary
to that life which we have made.
The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most
disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to
which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble
are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove
of the character and measures of a government, yield to it
their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: unconsciously held, that all sisters, excepting his own, could
advisedly be ruined.
He suddenly broke out again. "I'll go t'ump hell outa deh mug
what did her deh harm. I'll kill 'im! He t'inks he kin scrap,
but when he gits me a-chasin' 'im he'll fin' out where he's wrong,
deh damned duffer. I'll wipe up deh street wid 'im."
In a fury he plunged out of the doorway. As he vanished the
mother raised her head and lifted both hands, entreating.
"May Gawd curse her forever," she cried.
In the darkness of the hallway Jimmie discerned a knot of women
talking volubly. When he strode by they paid no attention to him.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: people who deny themselves everything do get warped and bitter,
don't they?" she argued plaintively, her lovely eyes wandering
from one to the other of her assembled friends.
Strefford remarked gravely that it was the complaint which had
fatally undermined his own health; and in the laugh that
followed the party drifted into the great vaulted dining-room.
"Oh, I don't mind your laughing at me, Streffy darling," his
hostess retorted, pressing his arm against her own; and Susy,
receiving the shock of their rapidly exchanged glance, said to
herself, with a sharp twinge of apprehension: "Of course
Streffy knows everything; he showed no surprise at finding Ellie
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