The War Prayer


🔗 a linked post to en.wikisource.org » — originally shared here on

My wife sent me this poem written by Mark Twain. It was originally written as a reflex of outrage surrounding the Philippine-American War of 1899, but wasn’t published until the beginning of the First World War.

The intent of it is to call out the unspoken part of prayer, the part that calls everything into balance. If you wish for your own victory, that means you wish for the defeat of someone else.

It is a great reminder that there are always two sides to every story. Life is subjective. Your experiences are just one data point. It doesn’t mean your feelings are invalid; it just means everyone experiences life in different ways.

Continue to the full article