“A great land is not born. It is built, stone by stone, by those who refuse to accept the size they were given.”
— Vitovt of Lithuania
Attributed to Vytautas on expanding Lithuania from a fragile duchy surrounded by enemies into the largest state in medieval Europe, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
In 1392, I became Grand Duke of a country everyone wanted to carve up. Crusaders to the west. The Horde to the east. My own cousin had killed my father. Everyone said Lithuania was too small, too weak, too late. I looked at the map and refused to accept it. By 1410, after Grunwald, the world knew our name. Whatever you are building right now, it probably feels impossible. Build it anyway. Stone by stone. The horizon belongs to those who walk toward it.