Christopher Hitchens

People know when they are being lied to, they know when their rulers are absurd, they know they do not love their chains. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#freethought #love

Terrorism works better as a tactic for dictatorships, or for would-be dictators, than for revolutionaries. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#revolution #revolutionary #state-terrorism #terrorism #dictatorship

The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#law #tyranny #love

It ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#death #humour #morality #death

A sure sign of ineptitude and malice is manifested when one's attacker is willing to cover himself with mud in order to try and make some of it adhere to his target. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#debate #ineptitude #malice #norman-g-finkelstein #smear-campaigns

The essential principle of totalitarianism is to make laws that are impossible to obey. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#religion

Beware what you wish for, unless you have the grace to hope that your luck can be shared. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#hopes #luck #love

It's like a memorial to Atlantis or Lyonesse: these are the stone buoys that mark a drowned world. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#cemetery #death #lyonesse #tombstones #wrocław

Of course what I'm about to share isn't true for me but... Friends, somebody said, are "god's apology for relations." (p. 129) ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#death #family #friends #death

The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? The enslavement of women? ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#islam #islamism #jihad #music #taliban