Christopher Hitchens

"A wise man doesn't give the right answer, he possesses the right questions."

"The state is not your friend; it is your master."

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history."

"One should say at the outset that the existence of the divine is not a reasonable postulate."

"To say that genocide is a tragedy is to understate the case."

"The only thing worth fighting for is the ability to continue the fight."

"My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization."

"The minority, the ruling class, has always found one of its best weapons in the form of what I might call affecting philanthropy."

"You can't have it both ways—you can't be a serious intellectual and believe in the supernatural."

"Reason has always had an uphill struggle against superstition."

"The beauty of reason is that you can change your mind when presented with new evidence."

"People are dying, and others are getting rich."

"The burden of proof is on the believer, not the skeptic."

"Money is what you need in the future; power is what you need right now."

"Take the risk of thinking for yourself."

"The demand for certainty is the worst enemy of the search for truth."

"You should never accept an argument that begins with 'everyone knows.'"

"The purpose of the intellectual is to speak to power, not for it."

"If we are to flourish, we must be skeptical of authority."

"The worst days of life are when we stop thinking and start believing what we're told."

"Bad manners make a man unfit for any society except Parliament."

"Death is certain, replacing both the siren song of Paradise and the dread of Hell."

"The spirit of inquiry is the source of all progress."

"Never lean on consensus; it's the lowest form of intellectual activity."

"The most important thing is to learn how to think, not what to think."

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent statesman."

"Ambition should be tempered with integrity or it becomes mere greed."

"The dichotomy between secular and religious is a false one."

"Women are not a special interest group that needs patronizing."

"You must have a certain ruthlessness in intellectual matters."