Christopher Hitchens Zitate

seite 2

„Die Philosophie beginnt dort, wo die Religion endet, genauso wie die Chemie dort beginnt, wo die Alchemie ausgeht, und die Astronomie den Platz der Astrologie ersetzt.“

„Was ohne Beweise behauptet werden kann, kann ohne Beweise abgetan werden.“

„Gibt es überhaupt etwas, das für jemanden verboten ist, der sagt, dass er Gott auf seiner Seite habe?“

„Kinder mit der Vorstellung an die Hölle in Schrecken zu versetzen, Frauen als minderwertige Schöpfung zu betrachten - ist das etwa gut für die Welt?“

„Alles über das Christentum ist in dem erbärmlichen Bild der Herde enthalten.“

„Friedrich Nietzsche: Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich st“

„Ich habe es immer kurios und berührend gefunden, dass es in den USA eine Bewegung gibt (Libertäre), die denkt, Amerikaner seien noch nicht egoistisch genug.“

„Sei niemals ein Zuschauer von Ungerechtigkeit oder Dummheit. Das Grab wird viel Zeit zum Schweigen geben.“

„Befreie dich von der Idee einer Himmelsdiktatur und du hast den ersten Schritt getan, um frei zu werden.“

„Ohne offene Konfrontation kann es keinen Fortschritt geben.“

„Jeder hat ein Buch in sich, aber in den meisten Fällen sollte es dort bleiben.“

„Die Suche nach dem Nirvana, wie auch die Suche nach Utopia oder dem Ende der Geschichte oder der klassenlosen Gesellschaft, ist letztendlich vergeblich und gefährlich. Sie beinhaltet, sollte sie ihrer nicht bedürfen, den Schlaf der Vernunft. Es gibt kein Entrinnen vor Unbehagen und Kampf.“

„Entweder, Sie akzeptieren das Prinzip der königlichen Intervention oder Sie tun es nicht. Und wenn Sie dies nicht tun, haben Sie immer noch die Wahl zwischen einem tatsächlichen "Commonwealth" - dem schönen und klangvollen Namen, den die englischen Revolutionäre dem am meisten verbotenen Abschnitt unserer Geschichte nach der Entfernung der Stuarts gegeben haben.“

„Wenn Sie [Jerry] Falwell einen Einlauf verabreichen würden, könnte er in einer Streichholzschachtel begraben werden.“

„Vielleicht fällt Ihnen auf, wie oft die Leugnung die Einleitung zur Rechtfertigung darstellt.“

“The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.”

“The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi as their ideal feminine model.”

“I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”

“Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and—since there is no other metaphor—also the soul.”

“I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information.”

“I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.”

“Courage moral and physical: 'anima'—the ability to think like a woman. Also a sense of the absurd. Courage moral and physical: “anima”—the ability to visualize the mind and need of a man. Also a sense of the absurd.”

“The noble title of "dissident" must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.”

“Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”

“If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.”

“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either.”

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

“The struggle for a free intelligence has always been a struggle between the ironic and the literal mind.”

“[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.”

“Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.”

“Nothing optional -- from homosexuality to adultery -- is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishment) have a repressed desire to participate.”

“The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.”

“Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.”

“There can be no progress without head-on confrontation.”

“Philosophy begins where religion ends, just as by analogy chemistry begins where alchemy runs out, and astronomy takes the place of astrology.”

“She's got no charisma of any kind [but] I can imagine her being mildly useful to a low-rank porn director.”

“An appreciation for irony.”

“The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex, and picnics.”

“The finest fury is the most controlled.”

“A rule of thumb with humor; if you worry that you might be going too far, you have already not gone far enough. If everybody laughs, you have failed.”

“Faith. Closely followed—in view of the overall shortage of time—by patience.”

“I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It's as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book.”

“A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless'…”

“Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.”