| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: stony footpath between two terraces, for here the soil is banked up,
and walls are built to prevent landslips. These earthworks, as it
were, are crowned with trellises and espaliers, so that the steep path
that lies at the foot of the upper wall is almost hidden by the trees
that grow on the top of the lower, upon which it lies. The view of the
river widens out before you at every step as you climb to the house.
At the end you come to a second gateway, a Gothic archway covered with
simple ornament, now crumbling into ruin and overgrown with
wildflowers--moss and ivy, wallflowers and pellitory. Every stone wall
on the hillside is decked with this ineradicable plant-life, which
springs up along the cracks afresh with new wreaths for every time of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: sorest dream.
But as thou awokest from them and camest to thyself, so shall they awaken
from themselves--and come unto thee!"
Thus spake the disciple; and all the others then thronged around
Zarathustra, grasped him by the hands, and tried to persuade him to leave
his bed and his sadness, and return unto them. Zarathustra, however, sat
upright on his couch, with an absent look. Like one returning from long
foreign sojourn did he look on his disciples, and examined their features;
but still he knew them not. When, however, they raised him, and set him
upon his feet, behold, all on a sudden his eye changed; he understood
everything that had happened, stroked his beard, and said with a strong
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: the King of Naples concerning the property of some banished nobles,
when a dispute arose between them, and the ambassador asked him if he
had no fear of the king. "Is this king of yours a bad man or a good
one?" asked Castruccio, and was told that he was a good one, whereupon
he said, "Why should you suggest that I should be afraid of a good
man?"
I could recount many other stories of his sayings both witty and
weighty, but I think that the above will be sufficient testimony to
his high qualities. He lived forty-four years, and was in every way a
prince. And as he was surrounded by many evidences of his good
fortune, so he also desired to have near him some memorials of his bad
The Prince |
