Christopher Hitchens

"The capacity for self-improvement and self-correction is what makes us human."

"A person who is certain they are right all the time is the one most likely to be wrong."

"The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it."

"Keep your children away from the knowledge of good and evil."

"The person who is absolutely sure that his god exists has much to learn."

"Art, like music, is both universal and culture-specific."

"I prefer the company of educated people, and I prefer them to have some wit."

"The beauty of science is that it can be wrong and still be right."

"Happiness is not something that can be pursued—it must ensue."

"The only position that leaves me is to not believe in belief."

"History is not a long series of lies but rather it is a work in progress."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

"You don't need to be religious to be good."

"What we've been fighting in this country is the rise of monotheism."

"I'm the kind of person who would sooner write than do anything else."

"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism."

"To be in opposition is not to be in the dark."

"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it."

"Beware of the terrible simplifiers."

"The beauty of a free society is that it allows dissent."

"I have always found that the best way to learn is to be taught by someone who knows."

"The most difficult thing to predict is the future."

"I have no time for those who are always apologizing."

"The idea that there is a god is not a scientific one."

"You can't have your cake and eat it too."

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."

"Distrust of government is the first step towards freedom."

"The key to understanding any society is to know how it treats its women."

"Love is not something that happens to you, it is something you choose."

"The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do."