Christopher Hitchens quotes - page 11

Courage moral and physical: 'anima'-the ability to think like a woman. Also a sense of the absurd. Courage moral and physical: "anima”-the ability to visualize the mind and need of a man. Also a sense of the absurd. (Christopher Hitchens)
You either accept the principle of royal intervention or you don't. And if you don't, you always have the choice of an actual 'Commonwealth' - the beautiful and resonant name given by the English revolutionaries to the most forbidden passage of our history after the removal of the Stuarts. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
What is it like to lie to children and tell them that they have an authority, that they must love and be terrified of it at the same time. What's that like? I want to know. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
A moment later, the same speaker is telling another listener of all the good things that monarchy is a 'force' for. These good things invariably turn out to be connected to power. They are things like 'stability', 'unity', 'national cohesion', 'continuity' and other things for which powerless people would find it difficult to be a force. Edmund Wilson would have had little trouble noticing, furthermore, that all the above good things are keywords for conservative and establishment values. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
said the Roman poet Terence: 'Nothing human is alien to me.' The slogan of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service could have been the reverse: To us, no aliens are human. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens: "Exactly, you don't know where it is, in other words, do you? You have no idea where the country is on the map, and you're in favour of bombing it now rather than later, on the whim of a President." View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it. (Christopher Hitchens)
Well, to the people who pray for me to not only have an agonising death, but then be reborn to have an agonising and horrible eternal life of torture, I say, 'Well, good on you. See you there.' View quote
Christopher Hitchens
The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
You can only have one aim per debate. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
If you look at any Muslim society and you make a scale of how developed they are, and how successful the economy is, it's a straight line. It depends on how much they emancipate their women. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Even if I accepted that Jesus - like almost every other prophet on record - was born of a virgin, I cannot think that this proves the divinity of his father or the truth of his teachings. The same would be true if I accepted that he had been resurrected. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
The one unforgivable sin is to be boring. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
To remember friendship is to recall those conversations that it seemed a sin to break off. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
I'm not particularly a feminist, but if you get women off the animal cycle of reproduction and give them some say in how many children they'll have, immediately the floor will rise. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
Pakistan has to export a lot of uneducated people, many of whom have become infected with the most barbaric reactionary ideas. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis. (Christopher Hitchens)
I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
The violence in the Bible is appalling. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
All of life is a wager. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
I love it when Muslims go to war with each other, as I do when the Christians do, because it shows there's no such thing as the Christian world and the Islamic world. That's all crap. View quote
Christopher Hitchens