People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.-- Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy

Mikhail Bakunin
About This Quote

This is a quote from a letter that one can find at The University of Stanford's Special Collections. In the letter, the author is writing to friends back in Italy. He states that people go to church because they want to stupefy themselves and forget their misery. They want to imagine themselves as free and happy for a few minutes anyway.

He also says that people go to a tavern because they think it will help them forget their misery, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he goes on to say that going to a tavern only makes matters worse.

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More Quotes By Mikhail Bakunin
  1. If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.
  2. People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.-- Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy
  3. The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.
  4. The passion for destruction is also a creative passion
  5. A jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.
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