Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
-Napoleon
like many amusing/intriguing quotations, one can find multiple repetitions of it on-line, but not anything vaguely resembling a citation thereto.
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Exclusion Principle
2 days ago
2 comments:
According to Wikiquote:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France
*I do not see in religion the mystery of the incarnation so much as the mystery of the social order. It introduces into the thought of heaven an idea of equalization, which saves the rich from being massacred by the poor.
*Often paraphrased as “Religion keeps the poor from killing the rich.”
Thank you, Jimmy. I hadn't realized there was a wikiquote. While the paraphrase is good for a bumper sticker, like many condensed quotations I like the entire thought better. Besides, massacred seems more emphatic than just 'killed'. To top that off, "the mystery of the social order" is certainly worth contemplating in the light of the Mystery of Why People Put Up With Such Bullshit From Those Who Despise Them. (i.e., the poor & rich)
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