Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.
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 useful to know what people think is the news.
More Christopher Hitchens Quotes
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No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis.
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Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.
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I have no time to waste on this planet being told what to do by those who think that God has given them instructions.
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Religion is not the belief there is a god. Religion is the belief god tells you what to do.
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Some people say that without God, people would give themselves permission to do anything. [Yet] only with God, only with the view that God’s on your side, can people give themselves permission to do things that otherwise would be called satanic.
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What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.
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Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did.
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We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.
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Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it.
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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.
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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.
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Your favorite virtue? An appreciation for irony.
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It is only those who hope to transform human beings who end up by burning them, like the waste product of a failed experiment.
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It’s called faith because it’s not knowledge.
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Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.
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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.
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The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.
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Those who want to be offended don’t have the right to try and close down the newspaper that offends them.
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The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not.
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I say that homosexuality is not just a form of sex, it’s a form of love, and it deserves our respect for that reason.
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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.
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What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.
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Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.
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I’m not afraid of being dead, that’s to say there’s nothing to be afraid of. I won’t know I’m dead, would be my strong conviction. And if I find that I’m alive in any way at all, that’ll be a pleasant surprise. I quite like surprises.
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I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.
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We have lived in a world where the discoveries of physics and genetics are far more awe-inspiring, as well as infinitely more liberating, than the claims of any religion.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS