I think the materialist conception of history is valid. Christopher Hitchens More Quotes by Christopher Hitchens More Quotes From Christopher Hitchens It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties. Christopher Hitchens absolute-certainty absolutes certainty 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 glasses night One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That's how the human species has done as well as it has. Christopher Hitchens knowing expectations children Unless a reincarnationist is willing to say there was a 'first generation' of souls created with the first humans, he is exposed to absurdity by the recency of human life on the planet. Christopher Hitchens generations soul firsts Islam is at once the most and the least interesting of the world's monotheisms. It builds upon its primitive Jewish and Christian predecessors, selecting a chunk here and a shard there, and thus if these fall, it partly falls also. Christopher Hitchens christian interesting fall I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim—so modestly and so humbly—to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world. Christopher Hitchens godly atheist real If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech. Christopher Hitchens political believe thinking A Great voice has fallen silent. A great heart has stopped. Christopher Hitchens silent voice heart By trying to adjust to the findings that it once tried so viciously to ban and repress, religion has only succeeded in restating the same questions that undermined it in earlier epochs. What kind of designer or creator is so wasteful and capricious and approximate? What kind of designer or creator is so cruel and indifferent? And - most of all - what kind of designer or creator only chooses to "reveal" himself to semi-stupefied peasants in desert regions? Christopher Hitchens desert kind trying In order to be a part of the totalitarian mind-set, it is not necessary to wear a uniform or carry a club or a whip. It is only necessary to wish for your own subjection, and to delight in the subjection of others. Christopher Hitchens wish mind order 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. Christopher Hitchens lines successful looks I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living. Christopher Hitchens preparation acting dying I personally want to "do" death in the active and not the passive, and to be there to look it in the eye and be doing something when it comes for me. Christopher Hitchens eye death looks At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be. Christopher Hitchens risk self writing I am a person of faith: I am a person who will believe practically anything on no evidence at all. Christopher Hitchens evidence persons believe How is the United States at once the most conservative and commercial AND the most revolutionary society on Earth? Christopher Hitchens conservative united-states earth Billy Graham is a boring, racist charlatan. Christopher Hitchens racist boring religion The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity Christopher Hitchens allies impossible people For the people who ostensibly wish me well or are worried about my immortal soul, I say I take it kindly. Christopher Hitchens soul wish people Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way the root of religious evil Christopher Hitchens religious roots evil
