“If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there,” explained motivational writer Norman Vincent Peale, “then never, never, never give up.”

In 1930, writer Watty Piper created a story that is a joy to read aloud and has inspired children — and adults — for generations to never give up.

A simple but powerful tribute to positive thinking, The Little Engine That Could was published during the Great Depression, a time when the world needed encouragement to keep going despite hardships and challenges.

Although small, Piper’s Little Engine agrees to pull a train full of toys over a mountain for the good boys and girls on the other side. The uphill journey was steep — impossibly so — but with a can-do attitude and belief in her ability, the engine made it to the top.

From the fruits of perseverance comes heroic success.

Helen Keller, whose life was a metaphor for perseverance, once wrote, “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”

That brave little engine — steady, hopeful, whispering “I think I can” — is still the perfect reminder that even the steepest hills can be climbed, one breath, one beat, one belief at a time.