No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose words often rose like hymns of wisdom, declared: “No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.” In this teaching lies the eternal law of greatness: one rises not by the ruin of others, but by the strength of one’s own virtue. To pull others down is to chain oneself to envy and bitterness, but to uplift is to walk the path of true power.

The ancients knew this truth well. They saw that kings who crushed their rivals without honor soon lost their thrones, while those who ruled with fairness and respect built legacies that endured. To knock competitors is to betray fear, but to compete with dignity is to prove one’s worth before heaven and earth alike. For the sun does not diminish by shining upon many; it rises in its own glory, untouched by comparison.

Tennyson speaks also of the worker, who gains nothing by scorning his companions. The field is tilled more swiftly when hands move in harmony, and the forge burns hotter when many tend its flame. To strike at one’s fellows is to weaken the whole, to squander strength in division rather than creation. Unity, not malice, is the force that carries men and women to triumph.

Yet the teaching does not end with others—it reaches inward. Do not knock yourself, he warns, for self-scorn is poison more deadly than any enemy’s blade. The one who despises his own being cannot rise, for he has slain the spirit that would lift him. As the ancients carved upon their temples: “Know thyself, honor thyself, and you will honor the world.” Self-respect is the foundation upon which all greatness is built.

Let future generations remember this wisdom: rise by your own labor, shine by your own virtue, and let no envy taint your heart. Do not strike down your friends, do not curse your enemies, and do not wound your soul. For the path of tearing down leads only to dust, but the path of building—of self, of others, of the world—leads to the heights where honor dwells and where the names of the noble are remembered forever.