A ploughman's sons lived at odds with one another. For all his exhorting, his words were powerless to change their feelings; so he resolved to teach them a lesson by action. He told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done as he asked, he first gave them the sticks in a bundle and told them to break it. But for all their efforts, they could not. Then he untied the bundle and gave them the sticks one by one; these they broke easily. "Well then," said the father, "you too, my children, if you stay united, will be invincible to your enemies; but if you are divided, you will be easy to overcome."
As much as concord is superior in strength, so much is discord easy to overcome.
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