Born in 1844 – Ilya Repin, Russian artist.
Above: Seeing off a recruit, 1879
Also, born in 1934, American writer Wendell Berry.
From Berry’s 2022 book, The Need to be Whole:
Conversation between persons and public discourse among leaders have been replaced by weaponized language emblazoned on placards and T-shirts. There is no point or value in any political side’s protest that its labels and slogans are harmless because of their truth. Once the labels and slogans are in the air, both sides are speaking the language of perfect division, which is to say the language of mob action or warfare. They are using language as a weapon, or set of weapons, by which opponents are made enemies. The people designated by this language are no longer actual or individual persons. They are becoming, or they are, targets.
Earlier in the same book:
Among the necessary and least dispensable words in our language are those by which we name our values. Here is a list (surely not complete) of such words: Truth, Justice, Mercy, Forgiveness, Peace, Equality, Trust, Hospitality, Generosity, Freedom, Love, Neighborliness, Home, Reverence, Beauty, Care, Courtesy, Goodness, Faith, Kindness, Health, Wholeness, Holiness…we need more than ever the words on my list…The great general principles are like an old tree’s trunk and main branches that sway but do not break. People in the days and years of their lives are like the leaves that come and go and are moved by the slightest stirrings of the air.