History Lessons

Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world by the time he was thirty-three. Within hours of his death from Babylonian swamp fever, the Hellenic civilization began to crumble.

Napoleon, conqueror of all of Europe, lost his power in a single day on the battlefield of Waterloo.

Hitler, absolute dictator of the Third Reich, committed suicide when his war machine failed.

Gandhi, the most humble of men, inspired ordinary people to acts of greatness. He refused to see the bad in people. He often changed human beings by regarding them not as what they were but as though they were what they could become. Humbly considering the interests of others as important as his own, Gandhi’s respect helped the downtrodden to become better than they thought they could be.

Anne Sullivan used humble, disciplined love to transform a wild, uncontrollable Helen Keller into a child prodigy. When 20-year-old Sullivan came to the Keller household to tutor the seven-year-old deaf, blind and mute Helen, she confronted an untamed creature. Patiently spelling words into Helen’s hands, Anne eventually broke through to her consciousness. Helen quickly mastered five languages and displayed gifts that far surpassed those of her tutor. Later, pleased to be Helen’s companion and helper, Anne sat beside Helen in classes at Radcliff, spelling out the lectures into her hand. Putting aside self, Anne sacrificed all her life to help her student blossom.


Perhaps love — at least the type of love that requires self-sacrifice or, to put the concept another way, the giving up of self — is the most powerful emotion because unselfish love gives us a sense of timelessness. When we love — when we lose ourselves in the other — time seems, ever so briefly, to stand still and we sense that those sweet, tender moments will, somehow, last forever.

Those who seek power will live to see their empires crumble; those who lay aside selfishness and treat others with respect and genuine interest will experience eternal joy.