The Great Man Does Not Sleep

The late Saad Zaghloul Pasha was suffering from an illness in 1923, and the greatest physician of Lyon, in France, at that time attended him and devoted himself to treating what ailed him. One day Saad said to his great doctor:

— I suffer from bitter sleeplessness; is there any way to be rid of it?

The doctor only replied:

— The pharmacies are full of hundreds of sleeping remedies. But you are Saad Zaghloul, the great leader, and greatness and sleep do not go together. Either I prescribe sleep for Saad and he becomes like all other men, or Saad pays the price of his greatness out of his sleep.

Saad smiled, and the doctor went on:

— Sleep, my lord leader, is like a beautiful maiden: the more you court her, the further she draws away from you; and if you forsake her, she follows you!