In his book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living,
first published in 1948, Dale Carnegie mentions that
when he started writing it, he offered a two
hundred-dollar prize for the most helpful and
inspiring true story on “How I Conquered Worry.”
A story written along these lines was sent in by a
Mr. C.R. Boston, one of the most significant parts of
which we reproduce below:
“I lost my mother when I was nine years old, my
father when I was twelve. We were haunted by the
fear of being called orphans ... Then Mr. and Mrs.
Loftin took me to live with them on their farm. Mr.
Loftin told me I could stay there ‘as long as I
wanted’ ... I started going to school. The other
children picked on me and poked fun at my big
nose and said I was dumb and called me an orphan.
I was hurt so badly that I wanted to fight them, but,
Mr. Loftin, the farmer who had taken me in, said to
me: ‘Always remember that it takes a bigger man to
walk away from a fight than it does to stay and
fight.’
What is meant here by ‘bigger’? In this context it
has nothing to do with being taller or stronger, but
signifies greater-hearted, broader-minded, and
more able than a smaller man’ to sustain injury or
insult without losing one’s composure. One’s
‘bigness’ here has to do not with physical
hardihood, but with moral courage.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
