| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: "Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best--
A perfect and absolute blank!"
This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out
That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
And that was to tingle his bell.
He was thoughtful and grave--but the orders he gave
Were enough to bewilder a crew.
When he cried "Steer to starboard, but keep her head larboard!"
The Hunting of the Snark |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: before his victory, so he ought not to fear them after it.
The contrary happens in kingdoms governed like that of France, because
one can easily enter there by gaining over some baron of the kingdom,
for one always finds malcontents and such as desire a change. Such
men, for the reasons given, can open the way into the state and render
the victory easy; but if you wish to hold it afterwards, you meet with
infinite difficulties, both from those who have assisted you and from
those you have crushed. Nor is it enough for you to have exterminated
the family of the prince, because the lords that remain make
themselves the heads of fresh movements against you, and as you are
unable either to satisfy or exterminate them, that state is lost
The Prince |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: and beauty, is not knowledge that which directs us to the right use of
them, and regulates our practice about them?
He assented.
Then in every possession and every use of a thing, knowledge is that which
gives a man not only good-fortune but success?
He again assented.
And tell me, I said, O tell me, what do possessions profit a man, if he
have neither good sense nor wisdom? Would a man be better off, having and
doing many things without wisdom, or a few things with wisdom? Look at the
matter thus: If he did fewer things would he not make fewer mistakes? if
he made fewer mistakes would he not have fewer misfortunes? and if he had
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