Christopher HitchensI mean, what would I be doing if I couldn't write? But that fortunately hasn't proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much … ▶372DeathReading
Christopher HitchensIts a matter of principle. If Jews born in Brooklyn have a right to a state in Palestine then Palestinians born in Jerusalem have a right to a state in Palestine.361Politics
Christopher HitchensI became a journalist because I didn't want to have to rely on the press for information... I only read it to make sure of whatever everyone else thinks is going on, because it's … ▶361HumanityReadingThought
Christopher HitchensAt 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 h… ▶372HopeLifeReading
Christopher HitchensPrimate and elephant and even pig societies show considerable evidence of care for others, parent-child bonding, solidarity in the face of danger, and so on. ✨ Is Christiani… ▶373ReadingReflection
Christopher HitchensThe people who tend to raise antiwar slogans will do so generally when it's American or British interests involved.373Humanity
Christopher HitchensWhenever I hear some bigmouth in Washington or the Christian heartland banging on about the evils of sodomy or whatever, I mentally enter his name in my notebook and contentedly s… ▶351LoveReading
Christopher HitchensLet me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk o… ▶351Philosophy
Christopher HitchensReligion has been an enormous multiplier of tribal suspicion and hatred. ✨ Christopher Hitchens (2011). God is Not Great, p.30, Atlantic Books Ltd373Reading
Christopher HitchensIf the Qur'an was the word of God, it had been dictated on a very bad day. ✨ Free Inquiry Magazine, Volume 21, No. 4, Fall 2001.373Life
Christopher HitchensThe rich world likes and wishes to believe that someone, somewhere, is doing something for the Third World. For this reason, it does not inquire too closely into the motives or pr… ▶373Truth
Christopher HitchensThe 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. ✨ Chris… ▶373ReadingTruth
Christopher HitchensYou know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it's the flick of a lash, but it wo… ▶341Reflection
Christopher HitchensBombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan … ▶341LoveThought
Christopher HitchensI 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.352DeathLife
Christopher HitchensI 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 c… ▶352Love
Christopher HitchensTrust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake.341Hope
Christopher HitchensWhat if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating. ✨ Christopher Hitchens (2012). Mor… ▶352DeathReadingTruth
Christopher HitchensToday 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… ▶341HumanityReading
Christopher HitchensHow ya doin'?' I always think, What kind of a question is that?, and I always reply, 'A bit early to tell. ✨ Christopher Hitchens (2012). Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and… ▶363LoveReadingThought
Christopher HitchensThere are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer… ▶375HumanityPolitics
Christopher HitchensIt's considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don't see why that's considered a normal thing. … ▶364Reflection
Christopher HitchensThe penalty for getting mugged in an American city and losing your ID is that you can't fly home.364Sadness
Christopher HitchensMillions of people die every day. Everyone's got to go sometime.342DeathHumanityTime
Christopher HitchensI have quite a decent constitution in spite of all my abuse of it and my advanced years. I'm still quite robust.353Humor
Christopher HitchensThe cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition.342HopeHumanityLife
Christopher HitchensI 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 (2012)… ▶364Reading
Christopher HitchensThe crucial distinction between systems...was no longer ideological. The main political difference was between those who did, and those who did not, believe that the citizen could… ▶353Politics
Christopher HitchensNo child's behind left. ✨ Christopher Hitchens (2011). God is Not Great, p.9, Atlantic Books Ltd331Reading
Christopher HitchensI'm very happy by myself - I'm lucky in that way - if I've got enough to read and something to write about and a bit of alcohol for me to add an edge, not to dull it. ✨ Chri… ▶331Reading
