Photo of the Day

It is 1906.

Mark Twain offers an explanation for why many people will live comfortably with the changes soon coming to America. ¹

Trump rally, 2019. Marc Nozell photo.

Nations do not think, they only feel.

They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains.

Nuremberg, September 1934.

A nation can be brought—by force of circumstances, not argument

—to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised;

Afghan women wear burkas, a traditional dress for Muslim women, 2003.

in time it will fit itself to the required conditions;

later, it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.

Young Japanese women receive weapons training to defend the Japanese homeland, 1945.

As instances, you have all history:

the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Russians,

the Germans, the French, the English, the Spaniards, the Americans,

the South Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Hindus, the Turks

Tsar Nicholas II, beneath the canopy, leaves Moscow's Dormition Cathedral following his coronation, May 1896.

—a thousand wild and tame religions,

every kind of government that can be thought of,

from tiger to house-cat,

Large-scale wedding sponsored by the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. Cristinadeargentina photo.

each nation knowing it has the only true religion

and the only sane system of government,

Nikita Khrushchev, USSR, Mao Zedong, PRC founder, Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnam, and Soong Ching-ling, Chinese politician, at a Beijing state dinner, 1959.

each despising all the others,

each an ass and not suspecting it,

KKK meeting, 1920s.

each proud of its fancied supremacy,

each perfectly sure it is the pet of God,

German chaplain at a religious service for members of the Wehrmacht, WWII.

each without undoubting confidence summoning Him to take command in time of war,

each surprised when He goes over to the enemy, but by habit able to excuse it and resume compliments

Tupperware party, late 1940s.

—in a word, the whole human race content,

always content, persistently content, indestructibly content,

Uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Survival International photo.

happy, thankful, proud, no matter what its religion is,

US troops march down an empty Pennsylvania Ave. on Trump's inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2017.

nor whether its master be tiger

Mark Twain receives the Doctor of Letters degree from Oxford University, June 1907.

or house-cat.

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I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

1. Mark Twain, “What Is Man? And Other Essays,” 1906.