Christopher Hitchens Quotes

191 Sourced Quotes

There is a reason for the affected profession of " anarchist sympathies" among Tories and grandees, and of " libertarian principles" by Hobbesian yahoos of the right. Among the former, one sees the upholding of the view that a gentleman's business and property are his own, and none of the government's. Among the latter, a distaste for democracy, for taxation, and for the need to consult others about the planet.

Christopher Hitchens
In particular, it is absurd to hope to banish envy of other people's possessions or fortunes, if only because the spirit of envy can lead to emulation and ambition and have positive consequences.

Christopher Hitchens
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
The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage.

Christopher Hitchens
Only the force of American arms, or the extremely credible threat of that force, can bring a fresh face to power.

Christopher Hitchens
Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish.

Christopher Hitchens
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
Chomsky proceeds on the almost unthinkably subversive assumption that the United States should be judged by the same standards that it preaches (often at gunpoint) to other nations he is nearly the only person now writing who assumes a single standard of international morality not for rhetorical effect, but as a matter of habitual, practically instinctual conviction.

Christopher Hitchens
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
Intellectuals never sound more foolish than when posing as the last civilised man.

Christopher Hitchens
This walking business is overrated: I mastered the art of doing it when I was quite small, and in any case, what are taxis for?

Christopher Hitchens