In a New York newspaper from the early 1900s there is an interview with the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. In it Tolstoy told of a trip that he recently made to a very remote area of the caucuses where there were only wild barbarians, who had never left this part of Russia.
Knowing that Tolstoy was in their midst they asked him to tell stories of the great men of history. Tolstoy said, “I told them about Napoleon and Alexander the great, and Frederick the great, and Julius Caesar and they loved it. But before I finished the chief of the barbarians stood up and said but wait you haven’t told us about the greatest ruler of them all.” The chief continued that they wanted to hear about the man who spoke with the voice of thunder, laughed like the sunrise, and came from that place called America. Come to find out they were talking about Abe Lincoln. Tolstoy was stunned. He told him everything he could about Lincoln and then in the interview he said “What made Lincoln so great? Not as great a general as Napoleon, not as great a statesman as Frederick the great. But his greatness consisted of, and historians would roundly agree, the integrity of his character and the moral fiber of his being.”
Let’s remember that integrity and moral fiber count more now then ever before. Let the world take note of your lifestyle and how you interact with others.
