WIST Quotations

Hitchens, Christopher -- “Be It Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate,” debate, University of Toronto (2006-11-15)

Dave — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:28:50 +0000

To whom do you award the right to decide which speech is harmful, or who is the harmful speaker? Or to determine in advance what are the harmful consequences going to be that we know enough about in advance to prevent? To whom would you give this job? To whom are you going to award the task of being the censor? Isn’t a famous old story that the man who has to read all the pornography, in order to decide what’s fit to be passed and what is fit not to be, is the man most likely to become debauched? Did you hear any speaker in the opposition to this motion, eloquent as one of them was, to whom you would delegate the task of deciding for you what you could read? To whom you would give the job of deciding for you — relieve you of the responsibility of hearing what you might have to hear? Do you know anyone? Hands up. Do you know anyone to whom you’d give this job? Does anyone have a nominee?

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
“Be It Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate,” debate, University of Toronto (2006-11-15)
(Source)

Video (at 9:23).

Hitchens, Christopher -- “David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion,” New York Times (17 Jun 2011)

Dave — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 21:11:24 +0000

This is an extraordinarily irritating book, written by one of those people who smugly believe that, having lost their faith, they must ipso facto have found their reason.

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
“David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion,” New York Times (17 Jun 2011)
(Source)

Reviewing David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge.

Hitchens, Christopher -- “Is There an Afterlife?” Roundtable Discussion, Whizin Center for Continuing Education (15 Feb 2011)

Dave — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:05:41 +0000

It will happen to all of us that at some point you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party is over, but slightly worse: the party’s going on but you have to leave. And it’s going on without you.

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
“Is There an Afterlife?” Roundtable Discussion, Whizin Center for Continuing Education (15 Feb 2011)
(Source)

The quotation comes at 12:57 into the discussion.

Transcribed by Catherine O'Brian in Transcription: The Afterlife Debate with Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, David Wolpe, Bradley Shavit Artson (2014)

Hitchens, Christopher -- “Mommie Dearest,” Slate (20 Oct 2003)

Dave — Mon, 17 May 2021 20:54:08 +0000

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

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
“Mommie Dearest,” Slate (20 Oct 2003)

Sometimes referred to as Hitchens' Razor. The concept is not new (consider the Latin phrase "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur"), but was popularized by Hitchens in discussion of contemporary discussion of religion, including in his work God Is Not Great (2007).

While cited by a number of sources to the 2003 Slate article on the canonization of Mother Teresa, the phrase does not appear in the 2016 reprint of the article at the time she was actually declared a saint.

More information (including the original Slate text): The long history of Hitchens' Razor • Background Probability.

Hitchens, Christopher -- The Portable Atheist, Introduction (2007)

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 17:39:33 +0000

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. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are god.

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
The Portable Atheist, Introduction (2007)
(Source)

Hitchens, Christopher -- Essay (2004-02), “I Fought the Law,” Vanity Fair

Dave — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:33:56 +0000

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

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) English intellectual, polemicist, socio-political critic
Essay (2004-02), “I Fought the Law,” Vanity Fair
(Source)

Collected as "I Fought the Law in Bloomburg's New York," Love, Poverty, and War (2004).