Authors:

Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 25

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
Since I speak and write about this a good deal, I am often asked at public meetings, in what sometimes seems to me a rather prurient way, whether I myself or my family have 'ever been threatened' by jihadists. My answer

Since I speak and write about this a good deal, I am often asked at public meetings, in what sometimes seems to me a rather prurient way, whether I myself or my family have 'ever been threatened' by jihadists. My answer is that yes, I have, and so has everyone else in the audience, if they have paid enough attention to the relevant bin-Ladenist broadcasts to notice the fact.

Christopher Hitchens
Writing, Facts, Attention
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.1497, Atlantic Books Ltd

I think I write in a fairly self-confident manner.

Christopher Hitchens
Writing, Thinking, Self

In our native terms, the ironic style is often compounded with the sardonic and the hard-boiled; even the effortlessly superior. But irony originates in the glance and the shrug of the loser, the outsider, the despised minority. It is a nuance that comes most effortlessly to the oppressed.

Christopher Hitchens
Sunset, Ironic, Style
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere”, p.180, Atlantic Books Ltd

Don't swallow your moral code in tablet form.

Christopher Hitchens
Tablets, Moral, Form

There either is a god or there is not; there is a 'design' or not.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Design

"Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age" was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed OUT of the Stone Age.

Christopher Hitchens
Age, Doe, Stones
"WAR ON TERROR: CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS on why peace-lovers must welcome this war". Christopher Hitchens, The Mirror, November 15, 2001.

In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don't kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

Christopher Hitchens
Medicine, World, Brutes
"Mortality". Book by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. August 25, 2012.

[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.

Christopher Hitchens
Inspirational, Motivational, Atheist

Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.

Christopher Hitchens
Attitude, Resistance, Should

There is a reason for the affected profession of " anarchist sympathies" among Tories and grandees, and of " libertarian principles" by Hobbesian yahoos of the right. Among the former, one sees the upholding of the view that a gentleman's business and property are his own, and none of the government's. Among the latter, a distaste for democracy, for taxation, and for the need to consult others about the planet.

Christopher Hitchens
Government, Views, Gentleman
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.250, Atlantic Books Ltd

We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass on an undivided Republic purged of racism and slavery, to our descendants. The popgun discharges of a few pathetic sectarians and crackpot revisionists are negligible, and will be drowned by the mounting chorus that demands: 'Mr Jefferson! BUILD UP THAT WALL'.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Wall, Racism

I'm terrified of losing my voice.

Christopher Hitchens
Voice, Losing, Terrified

The disquieting thing about newscaster-babble or editorial-speak is its ready availability as a serf idiom, a vernacular of deference. "Mr. Secretary, are we any nearer to bringing about a dialogue in this process ?

Christopher Hitchens
Availability, Speak, Process
Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.252, Atlantic Books Ltd

I don't even like showing my stuff to publishers and editors much.

Christopher Hitchens
Editors, Stuff, Publishers

Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also those who are most likely to decide that some things, after all, are worth fighting for.

Christopher Hitchens
War, Fighting, Violence

Everything everyone thinks they know about [Mother Teresa] is false. It must be the single most successful emotional con job of the twentieth century.

Christopher Hitchens
Mother, Jobs, Successful

Nonintervention does not mean that nothing happens. It means that something else happens.

Christopher Hitchens
Mean, Doe, Anti War
"Realism in Darfur" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. November 7, 2005.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

Christopher Hitchens
Nice, Book, Writing
"Christopher Hitchens on his memoir, Hitch-22". "Hugh Hewitt Show", www.hughhewitt.com. July 13, 2010.

As the cleansing ocean closes over bin Laden's carcass, may the earth lie lightly on the countless graves of those he sentenced without compunction to be burned alive or dismembered in the street.

Christopher Hitchens
Lying, Ocean, Alive

It’s considered perfectly normal in this society to approach dying people who you don’t know but who are unbelievers and say, ‘Now are you gonna change your mind?’ That is considered almost a polite question.

Christopher Hitchens
Perfectly Normal, People, Mind
"Christopher Hitchens: the top 10 quotes from the author, journalist and atheist", www.mirror.co.uk. December 16, 2011.

I don't regard myself as any kind of conservative, except conceivably neo, and that word, of course, is a ridiculous appellation, because it's used to describe a group that was ready to make war on the status quo, which is not a conservative position.

Christopher Hitchens
War, Groups, Ridiculous
Source: www.npr.org

One of the reasons I decided to apply for American citizenship after something like a quarter of century of living here on a British, European Union passport and a green card, was my identification with the United States in the post-September 11th period.

Christopher Hitchens
United States, Cards, Unions
Source: www.npr.org

Friends call me Hitch. Maybe it can be turned into a 900-phone number. People would pay to talk to me.

Christopher Hitchens
Phones, Numbers, People
Source: www.usatoday.com

But you'll notice, you will notice that Russia and China, invariably at the United Nations, move to block American action, to repress or hem in or punish other kinds of outlaw. Who stands behind Mugabi at the United Nations? Russia and China do. Who tried successfully to prevent the United Nations from speaking with one voice on its most signal violation of its resolutions, Iraq? Russia and China, again. North Korea the same. Burma the same.

Christopher Hitchens
Block, Moving, Russia
Source: www.npr.org

I'm not very impressed by people who yell "traitor" and "communist" and other less printable things. I don't like it.

Christopher Hitchens
People, Communist, Traitor
Source: www.foxnews.com

You May Also Like: