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Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 12

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Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way the root of religious evil

Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way the root of religious evil

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Roots, Evil
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.336, Atlantic Books Ltd

If god really wanted people to be free of [wicked thoughts], he should have taken more care to invent a different species.

Christopher Hitchens
Taken, Should Have, People
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.74, Atlantic Books Ltd

I've noticed that the more flooding there is, the more bullshit gets talked. I mean it was very noticeable in the Asian tsumai. It happened around Christmas-New Year. The Muslims of Sri Lanka said 'We knew this would happen because the Christians were using alcohol for their Christmas celebrations.' The Buddhists said 'We knew this would happen because of the horrible Muslim slaughter practices.' It's amazing to see how apocalypse or catastrophe makes people behave primitively.

Christopher Hitchens
Christian, New Year, Buddhist
Source: www.abc.net.au

My political life has been informed by the view that if there was any truth to religion there wouldn't really be any need for politics.

Christopher Hitchens
Views, Political, Needs
Source: www.wanliss.com

And the pleasures and rewards of the intellect are inseparable from angst, uncertainty, conflict and even despair.

Christopher Hitchens
Despair, Rewards, Conflict
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.23, Basic Books

I have a strong constitution which has served me quite well, though if I hadn't had such a strong one I might have led a more healthy life perhaps.

Christopher Hitchens
Strong, Healthy, Might

It's a better tradition for people who think for themselves and who don't pray in aid of any supernatural authority. That's what you should be spending your life is in spreading and deepening that tradition.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, People, Praying
Source: www.wanliss.com

You don't say 'they all do it' unless you know you've been doing it too.

Christopher Hitchens
Knows

Forget it. Never explain; never apologize. You can either write posthumously or you can't.

Christopher Hitchens
Writing, Apologizing, Forget
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports”, p.9, Atlantic Books Ltd

I didn't think Marilyn Monroe was beautiful. It used to worry me. I thought maybe I'm not put together like the other chaps.

Christopher Hitchens
Beautiful, Thinking, Worry

Margaret Thatcher has shown that there is power and dignity to be won by defying the status quo and the majority rather than by adapting to them. If the British left, which she froze into immobility like Medusa, could bring itself to learn from this, then we might not have to look upon her like again.

Christopher Hitchens
Power, Majority, Medusa

I think the socialist movement, by removing many, many people from grinding stagnation and poverty and overwork, does enable people not just to lead better lives but to be better people.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, People, Doe
Source: www.heavenonearthdocumentary.com

Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and - since there is no other metaphor - also the soul.

Christopher Hitchens
Soul, Mind, Literature
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.10, Atlantic Books Ltd

The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.

Christopher Hitchens
People, Boredom, Tyranny

We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history of our republic. Or who try to do so. Is it possible that, in their vanity and stupidity, they suppose that they can erase the name of Thomas Jefferson and replace it with the name of some faith-based mediocrity whose name is already obscure? If so, we cheerfully resolve to mock them, and to give them the lie in their teeth.

Christopher Hitchens
Religious, Lying, Writing

My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a 'race' life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

Christopher Hitchens
Cancer, Father, Race

I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

Christopher Hitchens
Dark, Night, Giving

The crucial distinction between systems...was no longer ideological. The main political difference was between those who did, and those who did not, believe that the citizen could -- or should -- be the property of the state.

Christopher Hitchens
Believe, Political Differences, Citizens
Simon Cottee, Thomas Cushman, Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left”, p.5168, NYU Press

Well, I'll put it this way: you can certainly say belief in God makes people behave worse. That can be proved beyond a doubt.

Christopher Hitchens
People, Doubt, Way

Hardest of all, as one becomes older, is to accept that sapient remarks can be drawn from the most unwelcome or seemingly improbable sources, and that the apparently more trustworthy sources can lead one astray.

Christopher Hitchens
Henry Kissinger, Trustworthy, Accepting
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.1565, Atlantic Books Ltd

The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.

Christopher Hitchens
Stupid, Bored, Brain
Christopher Hitchens (2017). “Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations”, p.92, Melville House

That most risky and volatile of all things a self-pitying majority.

Christopher Hitchens
Self, Majority, All Things
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.175, Atlantic Books Ltd

Bertrand Russell used to employ the method of "evidence against interest"; in other words of deciding that a critique of capital punishment, say, carried more weight if it came from a prison governor. (My friend John O'Sullivan puts it like this: If the pope says he believes in God, he's only doing his job; if he says he doesn't believe in God, he may be on to something.)

Christopher Hitchens
Jobs, Believe, Punishment
"What Sharon Did" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. January 5, 2006.

We know how to think. We know how to laugh. We know we're going to die, which gives us a lot to think about, and we have a need for, what I would call, "the transcendent" or "the numinous" or even "the ecstatic" that comes out in love and music, poetry, and landscape. I wouldn't trust anyone who didn't respond to things of that sort.

Christopher Hitchens
Thinking, Giving, Laughing
Source: www.wanliss.com

I can’t hope to convey the full effect of the embraces and avowals, but I can perhaps offer a crumb of counsel. If there is anybody known to you who might benefit from a letter or a visit, do not on any account postpone the writing or the making of it. The difference made will almost certainly be more than you have calculated

Christopher Hitchens
Writing, Differences, Benefits
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.11, Atlantic Books Ltd

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