A farmer’s sons were always quarrelling. Advice and scolding changed nothing, so he gave them a practical lesson.
He handed them a bundle of sticks and asked them to break it. They strained but could not. Then he untied the bundle and passed them the sticks one at a time. Each snapped easily.
Bound together, the same weak pieces had become difficult to defeat. Their strength had not come from changing the sticks, but from changing the relationship between them.
Source: Aesop, “The Ploughman’s Quarrelsome Sons,” The Complete Fables, fable 86, PDF p. 102. Retold.
What it argues
Division converts shared strength into separate weakness. Unity matters most when the members are individually vulnerable.
Use it for: coalitions, teams, families, labor organizing, and divide-and-conquer tactics.