"In ridiculing a pathetic human fallacy, which seeks explanation where none need be sought and which multiplies unnecessary assumptions, one should not...

We can always be sure of one thing—that the messengers of discomfort and sacrifice will be stoned and pelted by those who wish to preserve at all costs their own contentment. This is not a lesson that is confined to the Testaments.
~ Christopher Hitchens ~












We can always be sure of one thing—that the messengers of discomfort and sacrifice will be stoned an...
Show MoreMore Christopher Hitchens quotes
"The sad thing is that so many people, in the belief that the universe is organized to suit and influence them, are willing to sacrifice even the sligh...
"A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of ...
"We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history of our republic...
"I'm very depressed how in this country you can be told "That's offensive" as though those two words constitute an argument.
"You might think that, by now, people would have become accustomed to the idea of natural catastrophes. We live on a planet that is still cooling and w...
"Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand repo...
"Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the text...
"We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass on an undivided Republic purge...
"Religion is a totalitarian belief. It is the wish to be a slave. It is the desire that there be an unalterable, unchallengeable, tyrannical authority ...
"It is notorious that the news of the Emancipation Proclamation was kept from the people of Texas and not celebrated until 'Juneteenth'. There may be t...
"Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abje...
"We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the cont...
"So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been ...
"To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?