Christopher Hitchens Quotes - Page 4

You don't say 'they all do it' unless you know you've been doing it too.

The only people truly bound by campaign promises are the voters who believe them.

The whole point about corruption in politics is that it can't be done, or done properly, without a bipartisan consensus.

Don't write in to ask whether I would prefer Gingrich to Clinton. Ask, rather, whether Clinton prefers Gingrich to you. Go triangulate yourself.

The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has - from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness.

Revolution from above, in some states and cases, is [...] often preferable to the status quo, or to no revolution at all.

There is almost no country in Africa where it is not essential to know to which tribe, or which subgroup of which tribe, the president belongs. From this single piece of information you can trace the lines of patronage and allegiance that define the state.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the land question in Zimbabwe is the single most decisive one.

I have tried to write about politics in an allusive manner that draws upon other interests and to approach literature and criticism without ignoring the political dimension. Even if I have failed in this synthesis, I have found the attempt worth making.

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that 'issue' I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity.

Bad as political fiction can be, there is always a politician prepared to make it look artistic by comparison.

The two things he most valued, which is to say liberty and equality, were not natural allies.

But what [Orwell] illustrates, by his commitment to language as the partner of truth, is that 'views' do not really count; that it matters not what you think, but how you think; and that politics are relatively unimportant, while principles have a way of enduring, as do the few irreducible individuals who maintain allegiance to them.

Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.

The enduring rapture with magic and fable has always struck me as latently childish and somehow sexless (and thus also related to childlessness).

Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also those who are most likely to decide that some things, after all, are worth fighting for.

The 'pre-emption' versus 'prevention' debate may be a distinction without much difference. The important thing is to have it understood that the United States is absolutely serious. The jihadists have in the past bragged that America is too feeble and corrupt to fight. A lot is involved in disproving that delusion on their part.

On page 607, alluding to the end of my first marriage (and carefully remembering to state that that's none of his business), he very sweetly says that I 'might leave a wife, but not a friend.' Nice try. Neat smear. But he shouldn't be so sure....

It's probably a merciful thing that pain is impossible to describe from memory

In Africa, there is a birthrate trap: a higher standard of living will lead to smaller families but smaller families will not lead to a higher standard of living.