A Father had a family of Sons, who spent many long hours arguing and bickering with each other.

Who was the best?  Who was the strongest?  Who had the looks?  Who was the most skilled?
 
Nothing that the father said to them made the slightest difference, they were quick to return to their quarrelling as soon as the opportunity arose. He cast his mind for some outstanding example that would show them their constant disagreements would only lead them to misfortune.

On one particular day, a fight had broken out and each of the son’s had become battered and torn, their appearances dishevelled and unpresentable to the world. The father asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks used to light the evening fire. He handed the bundle to each boy in turn asking them to try and break the bundle. Although each one tried his best hoping to be the strongest, but none of them were able to do so.
 
The father then untied the bundle and passed each of the sticks to his sons and asked them to break them one by one. This they did easily.
 
“My Sons” – said the Father – “in your keenness to outdo each other, you achieved nothing between you all, but do you not see that if you agree with each other and help each other, then it will be become difficult for your enemies to come between you. But if you are divided from each other, you are no stronger than a single stick in the bundle and can be broken easily”.

And the Moral of the story is:
In Unity there is strength, divided you fall. 

Aesop’s Fables c.600 B.C.