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Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 10

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We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled

We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way

Christopher Hitchens
Stupid, Medicine, Long
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.772, Atlantic Books Ltd

The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity

Christopher Hitchens
People, Allies, Impossible
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “Arguably”, p.15, Atlantic Books Ltd

The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law.

Christopher Hitchens
Iron, Law, Essence
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays”, p.183, Atlantic Books Ltd

I love it when Muslims go to war with each other, as I do when the Christians do, because it shows there's no such thing as the Christian world and the Islamic world. That's all crap.

Christopher Hitchens
Christian, War, Islamic

An individual deficient in the sense of humor represents more of a challenge to our idea of the human than a person of subnormal intelligence

Christopher Hitchens
Ideas, Challenges, Sense Of Humor
Christopher Hitchens (2001). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, Basic Books (AZ)

A panel at a beautiful annual literary festival in Brazil, held in the almost Utopian coastal town of Parati, found me matched with Fernando Gabeira. This comparison reduced my own limited charisma value to something like zero: Gabeira has excelled at every cultural activity in Brazil.

Christopher Hitchens
Love, Beautiful, Zero
"Terrorists Ain't What They Used To Be" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. August 15, 2006.

We owe a huge debt to Galileo for emancipating us all from the stupid belief in an Earth-centered or man-centered (let alone God-centered) system. He quite literally taught us our place and allowed us to go on to make extraordinary advances in knowledge.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Stupid, Men
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “Arguably”, p.392, Atlantic Books Ltd

It's impossible, I think, however much I'd become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don't think I'd ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, Views, Political

I had become too accustomed to the pseudo-Left new style, whereby if your opponent thought he had identified your lowest possible motive, he was quite certain that he had isolated the only real one. This vulgar method, which is now the norm and the standard in much non-Left journalism as well, is designed to have the effect of making any noisy moron into a master analyst.

Christopher Hitchens
Real, Style, Opponents
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.270, Atlantic Books Ltd

Where would you like to live? In a state of conflict or a conflicted state?

Christopher Hitchens
Conflict, States
"Hitch-22". Book by Christopher Hitchens, www.theguardian.com. December 16, 2011.

There are many, many discrepant views within the Shia theology about what's the proper role of religion in society or in the State, should it rule now, should it claim to govern people in the here and now, or should it wait until the Messiah, the 12th Imam, comes back and would it only be then appropriate for religious rule to bring about a world of universal justice and vindication.

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Views, People
Source: www.abc.net.au

I, for one, will not have [the Vietcong] insulted by any comparison to the forces of Zarqawi, the Fedayeen Saddam, and the criminal underworld now arrayed against us. These depraved elements are the Iraqi Khmer Rouge.

Christopher Hitchens
Criminals, Elements, Force
"The Hell of War" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. June 5, 2006.

Those who had alleged that a million civilians were dying from sanctions were willing, nay eager, to keep those same murderous sanctions if it meant preserving Saddam!

Christopher Hitchens
Dying, Sanctions, Willing
Simon Cottee, Thomas Cushman, Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left”, p.5148, NYU Press

Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded.

Christopher Hitchens
Doors, Should Have, Faces

And yet, I wake up every day to a sensation of pervading disgust and annoyance. I probably ought to carry around some kind of thermometer or other instrument, to keep checking that I am not falling prey to premature curmudgeonhood.

Christopher Hitchens
Fall, Wake Up, Kind
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays”, p.9, Atlantic Books Ltd

Many more people are poor and sick because of the life of MT: Even more will be poor and sick if her example is followed. She was a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud, and a church that officially protects those who violate the innocent has given us another clear sign of where it truly stands on moral and ethical questions.

Christopher Hitchens
Ethical Questions, People, Sick
"Mommie Dearest". www.slate.com. October 20, 2003.

Islam in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or "surrender" as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.

Christopher Hitchens
Teaching, Arrogance, Islam
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.129, Atlantic Books Ltd

All the excitements of a prohibited book had their usual effect, one of which, as always, is to expose the fact that the censors don't know what they are talking about.

Christopher Hitchens
Book, Talking, Usual
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere”, p.130, Atlantic Books Ltd

If you say "the economy," you show you're stupid. There's no such thing as the economy. There is not a unity between the forces of production and the relations of production.

Christopher Hitchens
Stupid, Unity, Economy
Source: www.heavenonearthdocumentary.com

Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing Visiting today's Iran, I was delighted to find that citizens made a point of defying the clerical ban on booze, keeping it in their homes for visitors even if they didn't particularly take to it themselves, and bootlegging it with great brio and ingenuity. These small revolutions affirm the human.

Christopher Hitchens
Inspiration, Reading, Home
"Hitch-22". Book by Christopher Hitchens, www.theguardian.com. 2010.

A Great voice has fallen silent. A great heart has stopped.

Christopher Hitchens
Heart, Voice, Silent

Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones. People might suppose this was in poor taste.

Christopher Hitchens
People, Atheism, Groups

Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds?

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Godly, Men

I'm dying, but so are you

Christopher Hitchens
Inspirational, Dying

The stupider the regime the more intelligent the people get and the more humorous.

Christopher Hitchens
Humorous, Intelligent, People
Source: www.abc.net.au

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