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Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 8

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[I]f you think that American imperialism and its globalised, capitalist form is the most dangerous thing in the world, that means you don't think the Islamic Republic of Iran or North Korea or the Taliban is as bad.

[I]f you think that American imperialism and its globalised, capitalist form is the most dangerous thing in the world, that means you don't think the Islamic Republic of Iran or North Korea or the Taliban is as bad.

Christopher Hitchens
Islamic, Mean, Thinking

Arguments that explain everything... explain nothing

Christopher Hitchens
Argument
"Christopher Hitchens Discusses His Book ‘God Is Not Great’ at Authors@Google Series (Transcript)". Talk at Google, singjupost.com. September 21, 2014.

There can be no progress without head-on confrontation.

Christopher Hitchens
Progress, Argument, Confrontation
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays”, p.151, Atlantic Books Ltd

I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, Hatred, Claims
"What Evangelicals and Atheists Have in Common" by Skye Jethani, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 23, 2010.

I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, Tragedy, Sense Of Humor
"Christopher Hitchens on his memoir, Hitch-22". "Hugh Hewitt Show", www.hughhewitt.com. July 13, 2010.

No one has the right to tell me what to do because he has a divine warrant.

Christopher Hitchens
Religion, Divine, Warrants

I learned that to be amusing was not to be frivolous and that language - always the language - was the magic key as much to prose as to poetry.

Christopher Hitchens
Keys, Magic, Language
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.1251, Atlantic Books Ltd

When I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick.

Christopher Hitchens
Strong, Successful, Names
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.307, Atlantic Books Ltd

There is no such thing as closure, and it wouldn't be worth having if it were available, because all it would mean is that something that was quite an important part of you had gone numb.

Christopher Hitchens
Mean, Important, Gone

The noble title of "dissident" must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.

Christopher Hitchens
Sacrifice, Risk, Titles
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.1, Basic Books

Your favorite virtue? An appreciation for irony.

Christopher Hitchens
Appreciation, Irony, Virtue
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch-22: A Memoir”, p.252, Hachette UK

I don’t have a body, I am a body.

Christopher Hitchens
Body
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Mortality”, p.28, Atlantic Books Ltd

The museums of medieval Europe, from Holland to Tuscany, are crammed with instruments and devices upon which the holy men labored devoutly, in order to see how long they could keep someone alive while being roasted. It is not needful to go into further details, but there were also religious books of instruction in this art, and guides for the detection of heresy by pain.

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Art, Pain
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.208, Atlantic Books Ltd

Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. Don't say that as a boy your grandmother used to read to you, unless at that stage of her life she really was a boy, in which case you have probably thrown away a better intro. If something is worth hearing or listening to, it's very probably worth reading. So, this above all: Find your own voice.

Christopher Hitchens
Reading, Grandmother, Boys
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Mortality”, p.33, Atlantic Books Ltd

Though it is true we are the highest and smartest animals, ospreys have eyes we have calculated to be sixty times more powerful and sophisticated than our own and that blindness, often caused by microscopic parasites that are themselves miracles of ingenuity, is one of the oldest and most tragic disorders known to man. And why award the superior eye (or in the case of cat or bat, also the ear) to the inferior species.

Christopher Hitchens
Powerful, Cat, Eye
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.84, Atlantic Books Ltd

Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake.

Christopher Hitchens
Faith, Mistake

The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy - the one that's absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.

Christopher Hitchens
Enemy, Want, Action
"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

The Iraqi Baath Socialist Party was modelled in large part on admiration for European National Socialist and Fascist movements, hoped to emulate them especially in their nationalism against the West. But mutated by Saddam Hussein it became also one that very, very much admired, and grew a special moustache in admiration of the work of Yosif Vissarionovitch Dzugashvili, the great Georgian known to us historically as Stalin. So you had him in modern Iraq, a regime in our own time, that was openly, directly modelled upon the two most extreme examples of European totalitarianism.

Christopher Hitchens
Party, Two, Iraq
Source: www.abc.net.au

It's a curious thing in American life that the most abject nonsense will be excused if the utterer can claim the sanction of religion. A country which forbids an established church by law is prey to any denomination. The best that can be said is that this is pluralism of a kind.

Christopher Hitchens
Country, Atheist, Law

A gentleman is never rude except on purpose - I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.

Christopher Hitchens
Believe, Rude, Gentleman
"Look who's talking". Interview with Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. April 13, 2002.

In my life, the only certainty is to be uncertain. I'm an unbeliever who believes in skepticism. I'm only sure about being unsure.

Christopher Hitchens
Believe, Uncertain, Skepticism
Source: www.usatoday.com

What a country, and what a culture, when the liberals cry before they are hurt, and the reactionaries pose as brave nonconformists, while the radicals make a fetish of their own jokey irrelevance.

Christopher Hitchens
Country, Hurt, Irrelevance
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.253, Atlantic Books Ltd

Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.

Christopher Hitchens
Tactics, Impossible, Terrorism
Simon Cottee, Thomas Cushman, Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left”, p.5252, NYU Press

American author Mark Twain, while viewed as liberal and non-judgmental, did at times demonstrate both these characteristics. While his reasons for detesting the Christian faith are unclear, they seem to have been profound and deep-rooted. Having lambasted the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in a later quote he referred to the Book of Mormon as "chloroform in print."

Christopher Hitchens
Christian, Book, Profound

We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.

Christopher Hitchens
Anxiety, Lifetime, Enough
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.1592, Atlantic Books Ltd

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