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Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 5

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The faithful believe that certain truths have been 'revealed.' The skeptics and secularists believe that truth is only to be sought by free inquiry and trial and error. Only one of those positions is dogmatic.

The faithful believe that certain truths have been 'revealed.' The skeptics and secularists believe that truth is only to be sought by free inquiry and trial and error. Only one of those positions is dogmatic.

Christopher Hitchens
Believe, Errors, Faithful

Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it.

Christopher Hitchens
Choices, Free Will, Courses

In one way, traveling has narrowed my mind. What I have discovered is something very ordinary and unexciting, which is that humans are the same everywhere and that the degree of variation between members of our species is very slight. This is of course an encouraging finding; it helps arm you against news programs back home that show seething or abject masses of either fanatical or torpid people. In another way it is a depressing finding; the sorts of things that make people quarrel and make them stupid are the same everywhere.

Christopher Hitchens
Depressing, Stupid, Home

What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Stupid, Racism

The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.

Christopher Hitchens
Humility, Divine, Claims
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.19, Atlantic Books Ltd

The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.

Christopher Hitchens
Prayer, Men, Thinking
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Mortality”, p.16, Hachette UK

There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Regret, Reflection
Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.17, Hachette UK

My own opinion is enough for me. And I claim the right to defend it against any consensus, any majority anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass.

Christopher Hitchens
Kissing, Numbers, Lines
"Charlie Hebdo, Hate Speech and Christopher Hitchens" by Ronald Bailey, reason.com. January 14, 2015.

The prince's official job description as king will be 'defender of the faith,' which currently means the state-financed absurdity of the Anglican Church, but he has more than once said publicly that he wants to be anointed as defender of all faiths—another indication of the amazing conceit he has developed in six decades of performing the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle: that of waiting for his mother to expire.

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

The one unforgivable sin is to be boring.

Christopher Hitchens
Unforgivable Sin, Sin, Boring

Quite interesting, North Korea is as if it's an entirely secular dictatorship. In North Korea you might think that was the case since it has an officially Communistic ideology, but it's not, it's the most religious state it's possible to imagine. It's actually two people who have been fused into one, maybe this is reminding you of something, there's the father and there's the son. It's one short of a trinity.

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Father, Son
Source: www.abc.net.au

Islam makes very large claims for itself. In its art, there is a prejudice against representing the human form at all. The prohibition on picturing the prophet - who was only another male mammal - is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent.

Christopher Hitchens
Art, Dancing, Alcohol
"Cartoon Debate: The case for mocking religion". www.slate.com. February 04, 2006.

I think that there is no supernatural dimension. The natural world is quite wonderful enough. The more we know about it, the much more wonderful it is than any supernatural proposition.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, Dimensions, World
Source: www.wanliss.com

Religion is not just incongruent with morality, but in essential ways incompatible with it.

Christopher Hitchens
Essentials, Way, Morality
"Moore’s Law" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. August 27, 2003.

What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.

Christopher Hitchens
Inspiring, Friends, Existence

When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry,' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.

Christopher Hitchens
May, Spinoza, Woody
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.59, Basic Books

The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

Christopher Hitchens
Motivational, Song, Atheist
Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.480, Da Capo Press

Philosophy begins where religion ends, just as by analogy chemistry begins where alchemy runs out, and astronomy takes the place of astrology.

Christopher Hitchens
Running, Philosophy, Astrology
"God is not Great". Book by Christopher Hitchens, May 1, 2007.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

Christopher Hitchens
Philosophy, Believe, Healing

The atheist proposition is the following - most of the time - it may not be said that there is no god; it may be said that there is no reason to think that there is one.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Thinking, May

Jesus makes large claims for his heavenly father but never mentions that his mother is or was a virgin, and is repeatedly very rude and coarse to her when she makes an appearance.

Christopher Hitchens
Mother, Jesus, Father
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.85, Atlantic Books Ltd

Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Science, Ideas
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.13, Atlantic Books Ltd

If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.

Christopher Hitchens
Long, Important, Principles
Christopher Hitchens (2001). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, Basic Books (AZ)

"Objective" means that, in a confrontation with the evidence, you would be willing to change your own mind.

Christopher Hitchens
Pain, Mean, Mind

Today I want to puke when I hear the word 'radical' applied so slothfully and stupidly to Islamist murderers; the most plainly reactionary people in the world.

Christopher Hitchens
People, World, Want
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.167, Atlantic Books Ltd

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