Authors:

Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 9

All Quotes Age Alcohol Art Atheism Atheist Attitude Belief Bullying Cancer Certainty Challenges Children Choices Christianity Church Concentration Country Crime Culture Democracy Desire Doubt Dying Earth Economy Envy Evidence Evil Evolution Feelings Fighting Fun Giving Greek Hate Hatred Heart Home Innovation Insecurity Inspirational Irony Islam Jesus Language Liars Lifetime Literature Losing Lying Memories Morality Motivational Opportunity Pain Philosophy Politics Praise Prayer Pride Progress Purpose Racism Reading Religion Risk Running Sacrifice School Science Security Sin Skepticism Slavery Son Soul Struggle Stupidity Suffering Surrender Teaching Terrorism Torture Trade Values Violence Virtue Waiting War Wife Writing
The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent

The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer.

Christopher Hitchens
Thoughtful, Intelligent, Thinking
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.58, Atlantic Books Ltd

No society has gone the way of gulags or concentration camps by following the path of Spinoza and Einstein and Jefferson and Thomas Paine

Christopher Hitchens
Gone, Way, Gulags
"Christopher Hitchens: Religion Poisons Everything". Interview with Jon Wiener, www.truthdig.com. June 7, 2007.

It is only those who hope to transform human beings who end up by burning them, like the waste product of a failed experiment.

Christopher Hitchens
Burning, Waste, Ends

The prostitute journalist is a familiar and well-understood figure in the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein's regime made lavish use of the buyability of the regional press. Now we, too, have hired that clapped-out old floozy, Miss Rosie Scenario, and sent her whoring through the streets.

Christopher Hitchens
Missing, Middle East, Use
"Secrets and Lies" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. December 5, 2005.

My favorite time in the cycles of public life is the time when the Pope is dead and they haven't elected a new one. There's no one in the world who is infallible for those weeks. And you know, I don't miss it.

Christopher Hitchens
Missing, World, Life Is
"Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Sacrifice, Law
"Facing Death, Christopher Hitchens Affirms Atheism" by Ethan Cole, www.christianpost.com. April 25, 2011.

The role of dissident is not, and should not be, a claim of membership in a communion of saints. In other words, the more fallible the mammal, the truer the example.

Christopher Hitchens
Democracy, Saint, Roles
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.94, Basic Books

There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument.

Christopher Hitchens
Stupid, People, Lazy

Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish.

Christopher Hitchens
Selfish, Compassion, Mammals
Christopher Hitchens (2005). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.140, Basic Books

A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless'.

Christopher Hitchens
Battle, Friendship Love, Literature
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.297, Atlantic Books Ltd

We know that our life is essentially tragic. I'm absolutely not for handing over that very important department of our psyche to those who say, "Why didn't you say so before? God has a plan for you in mind."

Christopher Hitchens
Mind, Important, God Has A Plan
Source: www.wanliss.com

I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Pride, Secret
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.57, Basic Books

There are also people who say it's God's curse on me that I should have it near my throat because that was the organ of blasphemy which I used for so many years. I've used many other organs to blaspheme as well if it comes to that.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Should Have, Years
"Christopher Hitchens discusses life, death, cancer and God in interview with Newsnight". "Newsnight" with Jeremy Paxman, www.bbc.co.uk. November 26, 2010.

Religion fosters servility and solipsism.

Christopher Hitchens
Religion, Atheism, Solipsism

The fragility of love is what is most at stake here—humanity's most crucial three-word avowal is often uttered only to find itself suddenly embarrassing or orphaned or isolated or ill-timed—but strangely enough it can work better as a literal or reassuring statement than a transcendent or numinous or ecstatic one.

Christopher Hitchens
Love Is, Humanity, Three
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.306, Atlantic Books Ltd

Don't drink on an empty stomach: the main point of the refreshment is the enhancement of food. Don't drink if you have the blues: it's a junk cure. Drink when you are in a good mood. Cheap booze is a false economy. It's not true that you shouldn't drink alone: these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. Hangovers are another bad sign, and you should not expect to be believed if you take refuge in saying you can't properly remember last night. (If you really don't remember, that's an even worse sign.)

Christopher Hitchens
Hangover, Night, Glasses
"Hitch-22" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. June 6, 2010.

It's a big mistake to think that your own cause, or your own country, or your own side has God in its corner. For one thing, it commits the sin of pride.

Christopher Hitchens
Country, Mistake, Pride

Anyone who can look me in the eye and say they prefer the story of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed to the life of Socrates is intellectually defective.

Christopher Hitchens
Jesus, Eye, Looks
Source: www.wanliss.com

Pakistan has to export a lot of uneducated people, many of whom have become infected with the most barbaric reactionary ideas.

Christopher Hitchens
Ideas, People, Pakistan

Forgotten were the elementary rules of logic, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

Christopher Hitchens
Religion, Logic, Forgotten
"Mommie Dearest" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. October 20, 2003.

Happiness is fleeting and life is brief, but we know that, nonetheless, life can be savored and that happiness, even of the ecstatic kind, is available to us.

Christopher Hitchens
Fleeting, Kind, Life Is
Source: www.wanliss.com

This huge and terrible industry [the slave trade] was blessed by all churches and for a long time aroused absolutely no religious protest. . . . In the eighteenth century, a few dissenting Mennonites and Quakers in America began to call for abolition, as did some freethinkers like Thomas Paine.

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Blessed, America
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.171, Atlantic Books Ltd

In an average day, you may well be confronted with some species of bullying or bigotry, or some ill-phrased appeal to the general will, or some petty abuse of authority. If you have a political loyalty, you may be offered a shady reason for agreeing to a lie or a half-truth that serves some short-term purpose. Everybody devises tactics for getting through such moments; try behaving "as if" they need not be tolerated and are not inevitable.

Christopher Hitchens
Loyalty, Bullying, Average
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.39, Basic Books

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

Christopher Hitchens
Class, Way, Claims
Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Thomas Paine's Rights of Man”, p.11, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Redemption is promised at the low price of surrender of your critical faculties.

Christopher Hitchens
Religion, Redemption, Surrender

You May Also Like: