Christopher Hitchens

"Fear is the instrument through which power maintains its dominion."

"Time reveals what argument cannot resolve."

"The greatest kindness is often to tell someone what they do not wish to hear."

"Perseverance without direction is merely stubbornness."

"Inspiration strikes those engaged in the work, not those waiting to be inspired."

"The universe is indifferent to our need for meaning; that is its great gift."

"To live fully is to accept that nothing is guaranteed except change."

"The question is not whether to suffer, but what to do with that suffering."

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

"The only real radicalism in this century will come as it did before, from people prepared to take risks and think independently."

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God."

"Human beings are not endowed by their creator with the right to be stupid."

"The totalitarian system makes the accusation, and the case is closed. Evidence is almost superfluous."

"I became a nonbeliever not out of rebellion but out of conviction."

"We are not going to sacrifice our liberty for the illusion of security."

"The person who is certain, and who never feels doubt, is either stupid or seriously disturbed."

"Religion is not the opium of the people; opium is more honest."

"Beware of the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to think beyond or outside the boundaries of the knowable."

"You can't be a real man if you don't know how to make fire."

"As for women, I think we are forgetting to tell them that they can do anything a man can do."

"The problem with religion is that it asks us to believe things without evidence."

"One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus—had any idea what was going on."

"I say of Christianity what I say of Catholicism: it's a profound insult to everything that I value."

"Do not, under any circumstances, believe anything because I say it is true, or because tradition says it is true."

"The greatest question of our time is not whether the East will rise again, but whether the West has the will to remain free."

"Stupidity is not a handicap, it's a character choice."

"In the beginning, there was nothing, and it exploded."

"To terrify children with the image of hell is to traumatize them and make them unfit for this world."

"The iron age of imperialism is over, but the age of dependency lingers on."

"All religions are not just false but also harmful."