“Optimism is the opium of the people.”
Source: The Joke (1967)
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Milan Kundera198
Czech author of Czech and French literature 1929–2023Related quotes
Gideon Defoe (1975) British writer
Source: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists
“It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.”
Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace
Source: Gravity and Grace (1947), p. 159 (1972 edition)
Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker
2010s, Audience Q&A following interview panel at Aalto University Center, 2012
“Charity… is the opium of the privileged.”
Chinua Achebe book Anthills of the Savannah
Source: Anthills of the Savannah
“Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals.”
Edmund Wilson book Memoirs of Hecate County
Memoirs of Hecate County (1946) [New York Review Books Classics, 2004], Ch. 5, p. 340
Karl Marx, in his Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843-4), wrote "Religion…is the opium of the people" ("Die Religion…ist das Opium des Volkes"). Wilson was not the first writer to turn Marx’s statement on its head: Evelyn Waugh published a review of Harold Laski's Faith, Reason and Civilization in The Tablet, 22nd April 1944, under the headline "Marxism, the Opiate of the People".
In 1955 the French philosopher Raymond Aron wrote a book on Marxism called L'Opium des intellectuels. Hence Wilson's line is often attributed to him.
Hunter S. Thompson book Kingdom of Fear
2000s, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)
“Religion is not merely the opium of the masses, it's the cyanide.”
Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All
Skinny Legs and All (1990)
“The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
1930s