The North Wind Made the Vikings

 

Illustration by Milo Winter


Harry Emerson Fosdick  says in his book,  The Power to See It Through,  " There is a Scandinavian saying which some of us might well take as a rallying cry for our lives:  'The north wind made the Vikings.'  Wherever did we get the idea that secure and pleasant living, the absence of difficulty, and the comfort of ease, ever of themselves made people either good or happy?
Upon the contrary, people who pity themselves go on pitying themselves even when they are laid softly on a cushion, but always in history character and happiness have come to people in all sorts of circumstances, good, bad, and indifferent, when they shouldered their personal responsibility.  So, repeatedly the north wind has made the Vikings." 
~Dale Carnegie, 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.