A curious sketch of Napoleon's mother

There is an amusing sketch of Napoleon's mother. A woman of peculiar temperament, she had in her day flatly refused to live at the Trianon; the life of the court held no interest for her and she passed her time in rather secluded fashion, even declining to attend her son's coronation. Of the many original traits of her character, what most bewildered the courtiers was the incredible miserliness of Madame Mère de l’Empereur. When Napoleon asked his dearly beloved mother why she was so thrifty, Maria Letizia wittily replied that she had to prepare for the day when she would have to support several kings and queens, hinting at her children: Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain; Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musignano; Elisa, Duchess of Tuscany; Louis, King of Holland; Pauline, Duchess of Guastalla; Caroline, Duchess of Cleves; Jérôme, King of Westphalia; and, of course, the Emperor Napoleon himself. Strange as it may seem, Madame Mère of the Emperor was not mistaken in this jest, and foresaw the fall that would follow all that splendour and grandeur.

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A literacy circle for housewives in a 1931 photograph from the photo-essay "24 Hours in the Life of the Filippov Family"

Something tells me, on this day of splendid quotations from presidents, that in response to the call not to allow society to be divided into a thinking intellectual elite and people who will find themselves in the second or third rank in their level of intellectual development zealous executors, should

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Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

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Old colour photograph with cracks: adults and children resting on the grass on a slope under a tree.

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

The Orientalist Grigory Alexandrovich Kozakov, surrounded by his relatives, his daughter-in-law Countess Anna Nikolayevna Tolstaya, the children and their tutor, at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

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A literacy circle for housewives in a 1931 photograph from the photo-essay "24 Hours in the Life of the Filippov Family"

The Voronezh meme recurs in Trump's remarks on Iran and Los Angeles

Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903