What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence. Christopher Hitchens More Quotes by Christopher Hitchens More Quotes From Christopher Hitchens My own opinion is enough for me. And I claim the right to defend it against any consensus, any majority anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass. Christopher Hitchens lines kissing numbers There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis. Christopher Hitchens regret atheist reflection Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake. Christopher Hitchens atheist science ideas Ever since I discovered that my god given male member was going to give me no peace, I decided to give it no rest in return. Christopher Hitchens males return giving I learned that to be amusing was not to be frivolous and that language - always the language - was the magic key as much to prose as to poetry. Christopher Hitchens magic language keys The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer. Christopher Hitchens thoughtful intelligent thinking Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it. Christopher Hitchens free-will courses choices The offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can’t give way, is an offer of something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet; that I haven’t understood enough; that I can’t know enough; that I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Christopher Hitchens risk want giving I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor. Christopher Hitchens sense-of-humor tragedy thinking It is only those who hope to transform human beings who end up by burning them, like the waste product of a failed experiment. Christopher Hitchens burning waste ends The gods that we've made are exactly the gods you'd expect to be made by a species that's about half a chromosome away from being chimpanzee. Christopher Hitchens chimpanzees half religion We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way Christopher Hitchens medicine stupid long Take the risk of thinking for yourself Christopher Hitchens greatest-atheist risk thinking No one has the right to tell me what to do because he has a divine warrant. Christopher Hitchens warrants divine religion The role of dissident is not, and should not be, a claim of membership in a communion of saints. In other words, the more fallible the mammal, the truer the example. Christopher Hitchens democracy saint roles Your favorite virtue? An appreciation for irony. Christopher Hitchens irony virtue appreciation Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would think-though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one-that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell. Christopher Hitchens order children thinking Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with. Christopher Hitchens atheism atheist men Henry Kissinger should have the door shut in his face by every decent person and should be shamed, ostracized and excluded. Christopher Hitchens should-have faces doors I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It's as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book. Christopher Hitchens reading book travel
