FratFiles

• Save Paper

Religion is the opiate of the people" is one of the most frequently quoted statements of Karl Marx. It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often referred to as "religion is the opiate of the masses." The quote originates from the introduction of his 1843 work Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right which was subsequently released one year later in Marx's own journal Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, a collaboration with Arnold Ruge. The phrase "Tis opium you feed your people" appears in 1797 in Marquis de Sade's text L'Histoire de Juliette. In Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley states that opium is the religion of the people (or rather, soma).
The quote, in context, reads as follows (emphasis added):

Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the......

View the rest of this paper...

Approximate Word Count: 970
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

Similar Essays

1. Karl Marx
   

   Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. While

2. Karl Marx
   

   Karl Marx Karl Marx, the son of Hirschel and Henrietta Marx, was born in Trier, Germany, in 1818. Hirschel Marx was a lawyer and to escape anti-Semitism decided to abandon his

3. Karl Marx
   

   karl marx Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 to Heinrich and Henrietta Marx in the historical city of Trier. Karl was one of seven children raised within a comfortable middle class

4. Karl Marx
   

   Karl Marx Akhil Chawla English 10 Honors Mr. Immler May 17, 2000 The Life of Karl Marx Karl Marx was one of the greatest thinkers ever. Studying law and philosophy, he became an

5. Karl Marx
   

   Karl Marx KARL MARX: HIS WORKS ABSTRACT This paper will be about the main elements of Karl Marx's work, which includes the Paris Manuscripts, which will focus on alienation. The