What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence. Christopher Hitchens More Quotes by Christopher Hitchens More Quotes From Christopher Hitchens Religion is not just incongruent with morality, but in essential ways incompatible with it. Christopher Hitchens morality essentials way What a country, and what a culture, when the liberals cry before they are hurt, and the reactionaries pose as brave nonconformists, while the radicals make a fetish of their own jokey irrelevance. Christopher Hitchens irrelevance hurt country In a Pyongyang restaurant, don't ever ask for a doggie bag. Christopher Hitchens restaurants bags asks In the early days of the December that my father was to die, my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew. I was then a transplanted Englishman in America, married, with one son and, though unconsoled by any religion, a nonbelieving member of two Christian churches. On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased. Christopher Hitchens atheist brother christian It's no fun to appreciate to the full the truth of the materialist proposition that I don't have a body, I am a body. Christopher Hitchens appreciate body fun 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 Flaubert was right when he said that our use of language is like a cracked kettle on which we bang out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we need to move the very stars to pity. Christopher Hitchens bangs stars moving 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. Christopher Hitchens animal giving children The prince's official job description as king will be 'defender of the faith,' which currently means the state-financed absurdity of the Anglican Church, but he has more than once said publicly that he wants to be anointed as defender of all faiths—another indication of the amazing conceit he has developed in six decades of performing the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle: that of waiting for his mother to expire. Christopher Hitchens atheist kings mother 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 The transformation of part of the northern part of this continent into "America" inaugurated a nearly boundless epoch of opportunity and innovation, and thus deserves to be celebrated with great vim and gusto, with or without the participation of those who wish they had never been born. Christopher Hitchens innovation opportunity america A sort of moral blackmail is exerted from both poles. The underclass, one gathers, should be dulled with charity and welfare provision lest it turn nasty. The upper class must likewise be conciliated by vast handouts, lest it lose the "incentive" to go on generating wealth. Christopher Hitchens charity goes-on class Those who had alleged that a million civilians were dying from sanctions were willing, nay eager, to keep those same murderous sanctions if it meant preserving Saddam! Christopher Hitchens sanctions willing dying It's a curious thing in American life that the most abject nonsense will be excused if the utterer can claim the sanction of religion. A country which forbids an established church by law is prey to any denomination. The best that can be said is that this is pluralism of a kind. Christopher Hitchens atheist law country Today I want to puke when I hear the word 'radical' applied so slothfully and stupidly to Islamist murderers; the most plainly reactionary people in the world. Christopher Hitchens want people world The one unforgivable sin is to be boring. Christopher Hitchens unforgivable-sin boring sin The god of Moses would call for other tribes, including his favorite one, to suffer massacre and plague and even extirpation, but when the grave closed over his victims he was essentially finished with them unless he remembered to curse their succeeding progeny. Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing the dead. Christopher Hitchens prince-of-peace suffering ideas Doubt, skepticism, innovation, and inquiry are the only means by which wonder, beauty, awe, and symmetry will be discovered. Christopher Hitchens innovation doubt mean The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage. Christopher Hitchens despair moments 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
