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Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 18

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There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.

There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.

Christopher Hitchens
War, Liars, Years

The pornography of tough-mindedness, covert action, and preparedness for "peace through strength" has had a predictably hypnotic effect on the legislative branch, turning it from legal watchdog to lapdog.

Christopher Hitchens
Branches, Action, Tough
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.46, Atlantic Books Ltd

When the [US] president writes to Kim Jong Il, the son, the Dear Leader, he doesn't call him Dear Mr President, he calls him Dear Mr Secretary. Have you ever noticed that? Why is that? Because he's not the president of North Korea, he's the head of the Communist Party, the North Korean Workers' Party and he's the head of the Army. He's not head of the state. The head of the state is his father, who's been dead for 15 years.

Christopher Hitchens
Father, Party, Writing
Source: www.abc.net.au

The Iranian people were converted to Islam not very much longer after the conquest of the Arab world by Islam, but they refused to adopt the Arabic language, and it's a great point of pride to them that Persian culture and the Persian language and Persian literature survived the conversion to Islam. And the conversion to Islam also was for most of them not the Sunni majority form, but the Shia one. So there's a great discrepancy between Iranian society and many other of what we think of as Arab Muslim States and systems.

Christopher Hitchens
Pride, Thinking, Discrepancies Between
Source: www.abc.net.au

It was not for the sake of oil that the risky decision to cease this corrupt coexistence was made. But at least now the Iraqi people have a chance of controlling their own main resource, and it will be our task to ensure that the funding and revenue are transparent instead of opaque.

Christopher Hitchens
Oil, People, Decision
"Oleaginous" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. April 18, 2003.

Hannah Arendt in her study of totalitarianism borrowed from Immanuel Kant the concept of radical evil, of evil that's so evil that in the end it destroys itself, it's so committed to evil and it's so committed to hatred and cruelty that it becomes suicidal. My definition of it is the surplus value that's generated by totalitarianism. It means you do more violence, more cruelty than you absolutely have to to stay in power.

Christopher Hitchens
Suicidal, Mean, Evil
Source: www.abc.net.au

Everyone in Iran is perceived to be a child with a paternal authority vested in the Guardian Council and the Sufi elders. They're supposed to be grateful. They can never for a moment not be afforded this wonderful protection. The father who will never go away. The father who will never quit caring for them.

Christopher Hitchens
Children, Father, Grateful
Source: www.abc.net.au

Only the aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers.

Christopher Hitchens
Believe, President, Fool

If you've led a rather bohemian and rackety life, as I have, it's precisely the cancer that you'd expect to get. That's a bit of a yawn.

Christopher Hitchens
Cancer, Bohemian, Bits
"Christopher Hitchens discusses life, death, cancer and God in interview with Newsnight". Newsnight interview, www.bbc.co.uk. November 26, 2010.

The first thing I can remember I ever wanted was to go to the United States. And for reasons that are as conventional as you can imagine: I wanted to know if it was really true that it was the land of opportunity, of democracy, and individual liberty.

Christopher Hitchens
Opportunity, Land, Democracy
Christopher Hitchens (2017). “Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations”, p.46, Melville House

Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument and conversation - is worth it to me. [It is] impossible for me to imagine having my life without going to those parties, without having those late nights, without that second bottle.

Christopher Hitchens
Party, Writing, Night
"RIP Christopher Hitchens: Provocateur and Damn Good Writer" by Monika Bauerlein, www.motherjones.com. December 16, 2011.

The secular argument, or the liberal argument, is to as much as possible remove taboos so things do not become unmentionable; to let some air into the discussion.

Christopher Hitchens
Air, Argument, Secular

Primate and elephant and even pig societies show considerable evidence of care for others, parent-child bonding, solidarity in the face of danger, and so on.

Christopher Hitchens
Children, Pigs, Elephants
"Is Christianity Good for the World?". Book by Christopher Hitchens, ‎Douglas Wilson, 2009.

The obsession with gold, actually and politically, occurs among those who regard economics as a branch of morality. Gold is solid, gold is durable, gold is rare, gold is even (in certain very peculiar circumstances) convertible. To believe in thrift, solidity and soundness is to believe in some way in the properties of gold.

Christopher Hitchens
Money, Believe, Gold

For me, the life of the angler is an almost flawless example of how not to have a good time.

Christopher Hitchens
Example, Flawless, Good Times
"Is the smoking ban a good idea?" by Christpher Hitchens, Simon Hoggart, www.theguardian.com. May 14, 2007.

America was not interventionist enough, which, of course, did mean a bit of a breach with old comrades on the left. I felt the international left in the countries concerned took the same position as I did. So, in my view, it's the left that's become reactionary and isolationist and parochial.

Christopher Hitchens
Country, Mean, Views
Source: www.npr.org

When you consider how many millions of workdays begin with hangovers great and small, it is mildly ­surprising to find how few real descriptions of the experience our literature can boast.

Christopher Hitchens
Real, Hangover, Literature

All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.

Christopher Hitchens
Wagers, Life Is, Bohemian
"Christopher Hitchens to Charlie Rose: I'd do it again" by Patrick Gavin, www.politico.com. August 16, 2010.

There are things about quitting the smoking habit for which nobody prepares you. Did I have any idea that I would indulge in long, drooling-nay, dribbling-lascivious dreams in which I was still wreathed in fragrant blue fumes? I would wake with the complete and guilty conviction that I had sinned in word and deed while I was asleep.

Christopher Hitchens
Dream, Blue, Ideas
Christopher Hitchens (2015). “And Yet...: Essays”, p.184, Atlantic Books Ltd

The United States has an isolationist and insular culture, combined with a global and interventionist posture. This highly dangerous and febrile mixture, which greatly facilitates the task of the fear-mongers and chauvinists, needs a very exact and nuanced diagnosis. I don't think that analogies from the totalitarian model, however suggestive, are sufficient.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, United States, Tasks
Christopher Hitchens (1994). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.219, Verso

There are two clocks ticking in Iran. One is the democracy movement clock which is ticking now faster than it was but it's got a lot of catching up to do. And then there's the clock that's ticking towards a nuclear weaponry.

Christopher Hitchens
Iran, Two, Democracy
Source: www.abc.net.au

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

Christopher Hitchens
Inspiration, Reading, Writing
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.314, Atlantic Books Ltd

Unless a reincarnationist is willing to say there was a 'first generation' of souls created with the first humans, he is exposed to absurdity by the recency of human life on the planet.

Christopher Hitchens
Soul, Generations, Firsts

Flaubert was right when he said that our use of language is like a cracked kettle on which we bang out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we need to move the very stars to pity.

Christopher Hitchens
Stars, Moving, Bangs
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.181, Atlantic Books Ltd

Martin is your best friend, isn't he?' a sweet and well-intentioned girl once said when both of us were present: it was the only time I ever felt awkward about this precious idea, which seemed somehow to risk diminishment if it were uttered aloud.

Christopher Hitchens
Best Friend, Girl, Sweet
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.306, Atlantic Books Ltd

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