My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can’t prove it, but you can’t disprove it either.
—Christopher Hitchens
Humans should not worship other humans at all, but if they must do so it is better that the worshipped ones do not occupy any positions of political power.
—Christopher Hitchens
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
—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.
—Christopher Hitchens
The search for nirvana, like the search for utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.
—Christopher Hitchens
Principles have a way of enduring, as do the few irreducible individuals who maintain allegiance to them.
—Christopher Hitchens
A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realization that you can’t make old friends.
—Christopher Hitchens
Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did.
—Christopher Hitchens
Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.
—Christopher Hitchens
Topics: Terrorism
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.
—Christopher Hitchens
The noble title of ‘dissident’ must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.
—Christopher Hitchens
Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.
—Christopher Hitchens
The finest fury is the most controlled.
—Christopher Hitchens
The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage.
—Christopher Hitchens
The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.
—Christopher Hitchens
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Bertrand A. Russell British Philosopher, Mathematician
- George Orwell English Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach German Philosopher
- Mikhail Bakunin Russian Anarchist
- Auguste Comte French Philosopher
- Karl Marx German Philosopher, Economist
- Douglas Adams British Author
- John Fowles English Novelist
- Richard Dawkins British Ethologist, Atheist
- Arthur C. Clarke English Science-fiction Writer
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