united we stand(, divided we fall)

We are much more powerful and likely to succeed when we work together toward a common purpose. If we all refuse to work, they will have no choice but to meet our demands, but only if each and every one of us refuses to bend. United we stand, but divided we fall! My fellow citizens, in this dark time, it is important now more than ever to remember that united we stand. It is in that unity that we will overcome this great difficulty that lies before us.

Prov. People who join together as a group are much harder to defeat than they would be separately. The tenants of this building must band together if we are to make the landlord agree to our demands. United we stand, divided we fall! We had better all agree on what we are going to say to the boss before we go in there and say it. United we stand, divided we fall.

There is strength in union. This expression is derived from numerous similar ones pronounced by leaders in ancient Greece, Rome, and other states. The Romans said unitate fortior, a translation from the Greek of Periander, the tyrant of Corinth (ca. 627–586 b.c.). American patriots revived the completion of the phrase, divided we fall, which became a kind of national slogan in the nineteenth century. However, it also was applied to entities smaller than a nation. “The prosperity of the House of Rothschild is due to the unity . . . of its members . . . a fresh example of the saying that ‘union is strength’” (Edward Walford, Tales of Great Families, 1877). Today the cliché is often used in a semijocular fashion, as, for example, by a doubles team in tennis.