Count the day won when, turning on its axis, This earth imposes no additional taxes.

In two rhymed lines, Adams turns a familiar “seize the day” sentiment into a sardonic modern measure of success: a day is “won” not by moral improvement or achievement, but simply by surviving without being charged more. The joke depends on treating the earth’s daily rotation as a kind of bureaucratic cycle that could, in principle, bring fresh levies—an absurdity that highlights how pervasive and wearying taxation (and, by extension, fees and financial demands) can feel. The couplet’s light verse compresses a broader social complaint into a neat epigram: in a world of constant exactions, mere respite becomes a victory.