“If a man is not rising upward to become an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to become a devil.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). 30 August 1833, Table Talk, 1835

- We are always changing. It is not in the nature of a human being to always stay the same, to never grow or fade. We live and we die, we fall and rise, thrive and fail, over and over again, all our days. It is not necessarily the case that we shall rise to become an angel, or fall to become a devil, for people like that are exceedingly rare, but rather that we constantly tend to move along those paths. Some people like to say that they try to be a little better today than yesterday, each day, and most of us never quite manage that. What we do instead is, be better in one moment, and worse in a different moment, depending on our concentration and powers. We do not always land where we aim, and neither do we always aim where we think we do - the inclinations of our own lives are often a mystery to us, when looking at them only from the middle present. It is in our view of ourselves in the past and future that we are able to hold ourselves to a higher standard, to intend to act, and so tend to do so, or to fear to act, and so fail to be. We do in the present, and only later find out whether we have risen or fallen in that moment whether we are man or beast, devil or angel, loyal to ourselves or traitor to ourselves. 

As for ourselves, so too for others. It has been said that people rise to the occasion, and that a people's worth is only really shown in adverse circumstances. This is because we know who we are, but not what we may become. We are fall-ing, or ris-ing, and change in motion. What we were doesn't determine what we may become, for good or ill. It only allows us to start at one point or another - the choice of where to run, and how far, is still up to us. So, look not at what a man is, when she appears before you. Rather, fasten your gaze upon what they are turning out to be. We are not static, but made of patterns. A ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ person isn’t necessarily going to act ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at any particular moment. This is why we can be surprised by the actions of others, thinking that ‘he would never do that’, or ‘I’m surprised she did that’ - because a person, no matter how their patterns usually turn out, can be ‘becoming’ a devil or an angel at any particular moment. Each of us has the capability for good and evil, or the most horrendous transgressions, and the highest ideals. What determines the course of our fate and our soul isn't the character we are playing right now, but the story we are telling with our life. 

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