---
title: "86 Life Quotes By Christopher Hitchens"
description: "Hitchens' thoughts on doubt, humor, and the value of friendship in a fleeting life."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec9/christopher-hitchens-117_life_all-of-life-is-a-wager-106623_106623.jpg"
---

> [All of life is a wager](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/all-of-life-is-a-wager/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec9/christopher-hitchens-117_life_all-of-life-is-a-wager-106623_106623.jpg)

> [Talking, it seemed to me, was the point of adult existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/talking-it-seemed-to-me-was-the-point-of-adult-existence/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/81f/christopher-hitchens-117_adult_talking-it-seemed-to-me-was-the-point-of_1396346.jpg)

> [ “\[T\]his is an enemy for life, as well as an enemy of life.” ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an-enemy-of-life/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cdb/christopher-hitchens-117_islamism_t-his-is-an-enemy-for-life-as-well-as-an_2117574.jpg)

> [“In whatever kind of a “race” life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-whatever-kind-of-a-race-life-may-be-i-have-very-abruptly-become-a/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8cb/christopher-hitchens-117_life_in-whatever-kind-of-a-race-life-may-be-i_1128480.jpg)

> [For most of my life I let women do the driving and was happy to let them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/for-most-of-my-life-i-let-women-do-the-driving-and-was-happy-to-let/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/273/christopher-hitchens-117_driving_for-most-of-my-life-i-let-women-do-the-d_3080730.jpg)

> [“Montaigne: “Religion’s surest foundation is the contempt for life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/montaigne-religion-s-surest-foundation-is-the-contempt-for-life/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d2/christopher-hitchens-117_contempt_montaigne-religion-s-surest-foundation-i_2394515.jpg)

> [My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/my-chief-consolation-in-this-year-of-living-dyingly-has-been-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0f3/christopher-hitchens-117_chiefs_my-chief-consolation-in-this-year-of-liv_294720.jpg)

> [What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/what-do-you-most-value-in-your-friends-their-continued-existence/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a52/christopher-hitchens-117_existence_what-do-you-most-value-in-your-friends-t_1956575.jpg)

> [Happiness is fleeting and life is brief, but we know that, nonetheless, life can be savored and that happiness, even of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/happiness-is-fleeting-and-life-is-brief-but-we-know-that-nonetheless/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/953/christopher-hitchens-117_available_happiness-is-fleeting-and-life-is-brief_498298.jpg)

> [For me, the life of the angler is an almost flawless example of how not to have a good time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/for-me-the-life-of-the-angler-is-an-almost-flawless-example-of-how/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c6/christopher-hitchens-117_anglers_for-me-the-life-of-the-angler-is-an-almo_871116.jpg)

> [“why has the blowjob had a dual existence for so long, sometimes subterranean and sometimes flaunted, before bursting into plain view as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/why-has-the-blowjob-had-a-dual-existence-for-so-long-sometimes/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/84b/christopher-hitchens-117_life_why-has-the-blowjob-had-a-dual-existence_1008713.jpg)

> [If you've led a rather bohemian and rackety life, as I have, it's precisely the cancer that you'd expect to get. That's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/if-you-ve-led-a-rather-bohemian-and-rackety-life-as-i-have-it-s/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/470/christopher-hitchens-117_bits_if-you-ve-led-a-rather-bohemian-and-rack_3175481.jpg)

> [I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-sometimes-wish-i-were-suffering-in-a-good-cause-or-risking-my-life/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0da/christopher-hitchens-117_being_i-sometimes-wish-i-were-suffering-in-a-g_1526844.jpg)

> [“To begin with a summary of Paine’s astonishing life and career is to commence with a sense of wonder that he was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-begin-with-a-summary-of-paine-s-astonishing-life-and-career-is-to/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b38/christopher-hitchens-117_life_to-begin-with-a-summary-of-paine-s-aston_2184512.jpg)

> [In our time, the symbol of state intrusion into the private life is the mandatory urine test.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-our-time-the-symbol-of-state-intrusion-into-the-private-life-is/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/db5/christopher-hitchens-117_intrusion_in-our-time-the-symbol-of-state-intrusio_3033931.jpg)

> [I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-have-tried-for-much-of-my-life-to-write-as-if-i-was-composing-my/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de1/christopher-hitchens-117_composing_i-have-tried-for-much-of-my-life-to-writ_2484993.jpg)

> [Unless a reincarnationist is willing to say there was a 'first generation' of souls created with the first humans, he is exposed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/unless-a-reincarnationist-is-willing-to-say-there-was-a-first/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cd/christopher-hitchens-117_absurdity_unless-a-reincarnationist-is-willing-to_1413451.jpg)

> [We know that our life is essentially tragic. I'm absolutely not for handing over that very important department of our psyche to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/we-know-that-our-life-is-essentially-tragic-i-m-absolutely-not-for/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dfc/christopher-hitchens-117_department_we-know-that-our-life-is-essentially-tra_1552823.jpg)

> [My favorite time in the cycles of public life is the time when the Pope is dead and they haven't elected a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/my-favorite-time-in-the-cycles-of-public-life-is-the-time-when-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/427/christopher-hitchens-117_cycles_my-favorite-time-in-the-cycles-of-public_1147430.jpg)

> [Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered-undesireable-qualities-in/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/715/christopher-hitchens-117_atheist_gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered_43589.jpg)

> [“the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-chief-principle-of-banana-ism-is-that-of-kleptocracy-whereby/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/096/christopher-hitchens-117_daily-life_the-chief-principle-of-banana-ism-is-tha_1734460.jpg)

> [A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/a-life-that-partakes-even-a-little-of-friendship-love-irony-humor/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/381/christopher-hitchens-117_battle_a-life-that-partakes-even-a-little-of-fr_1508916.jpg)

> [ MT \[Mother Teresa\] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/mt-mother-teresa-was-not-a-friend-of-the-poor-she-was-a-friend-of/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/964/christopher-hitchens-117_cures_mt-mother-teresa-was-not-a-friend-of-the_3074896.jpg)

> [When I am at home, I never go near the synagogue unless, say, there is a bar or bat mitzvah involving the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/when-i-am-at-home-i-never-go-near-the-synagogue-unless-say-there-is-a/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22b/christopher-hitchens-117_bars_when-i-am-at-home-i-never-go-near-the-sy_2173696.jpg)

> [At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/at-the-evident-risk-of-seeming-ridiculous-i-want-to-begin-by-saying/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/christopher-hitchens-117_care_at-the-evident-risk-of-seeming-ridiculou_2380045.jpg)

> [“here is something that is impossible for anyone to believe. The human species has been in existence as Homo sapiens for (let…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/here-is-something-that-is-impossible-for-anyone-to-believe-the-human/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f93/christopher-hitchens-117_life_here-is-something-that-is-impossible-for_1662012.jpg)

> [“What a sight! This infinitely proceeding division of society into the most manifold races opposed to one another by petty antipathies, uneasy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/what-a-sight-this-infinitely-proceeding-division-of-society-into-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f88/christopher-hitchens-117_criticism_what-a-sight-this-infinitely-proceeding_2984530.jpg)

> [“As a convinced atheist, I ought to agree with Voltaire that Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-a-convinced-atheist-i-ought-to-agree-with-voltaire-that-judaism-is/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/86b/christopher-hitchens-117_18th-century_as-a-convinced-atheist-i-ought-to-agree_1702283.jpg)

> [“It is vain philosophy that supposes more causes than are exactly adequate to explain the phenomena of things. . . . You…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-is-vain-philosophy-that-supposes-more-causes-than-are-exactly-2/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4d9/christopher-hitchens-117_existentialism_it-is-vain-philosophy-that-supposes-more_2035997.jpg)

> [“The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-clear-awareness-of-having-been-born-into-a-losing-struggle-need/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/72b/christopher-hitchens-117_afterlife_the-clear-awareness-of-having-been-born_147213.jpg)

> [“Even if it were possible to cast my horoscope in this one life, and to make an accurate prediction about my future,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/even-if-it-were-possible-to-cast-my-horoscope-in-this-one-life-and-to/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a11/christopher-hitchens-117_antidepressants_even-if-it-were-possible-to-cast-my-horo_1390645.jpg)

> [“If you were offered the chance to live your own life again, would you seize the opportunity? The only real philosophical answer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/if-you-were-offered-the-chance-to-live-your-own-life-again-would-you/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/christopher-hitchens-117_absurdity_if-you-were-offered-the-chance-to-live-y_216484.jpg)

> [I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-make-preparations-both-to-live-and-to-die-every-day-but-with-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ec/christopher-hitchens-117_acting_i-make-preparations-both-to-live-and-to_1059183.jpg)

> [All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/all-the-time-i-ve-felt-that-life-is-a-wager-and-that-i-probably-was/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1cb/christopher-hitchens-117_bohemian_all-the-time-i-ve-felt-that-life-is-a-wa_757211.jpg)

> [Your ideal authors ought to pull you from the foundering of your previous existence, not smilingly guide you into a friendly and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/your-ideal-authors-ought-to-pull-you-from-the-foundering-of-your/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49c/christopher-hitchens-117_books_your-ideal-authors-ought-to-pull-you-fro_946420.jpg)

> [“Question: “What do you most value in your friends?" Answer: "Their continued existence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/question-what-do-you-most-value-in-your-friends-answer-their/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f3d/christopher-hitchens-117_answer_question-what-do-you-most-value-in-your_2364060.jpg)

> [My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/my-father-had-died-and-very-swiftly-too-of-cancer-of-the-esophagus-he/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fea/christopher-hitchens-117_cancer_my-father-had-died-and-very-swiftly-too_814594.jpg)

> [Anyone who can look me in the eye and say they prefer the story of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/anyone-who-can-look-me-in-the-eye-and-say-they-prefer-the-story-of/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/283/christopher-hitchens-117_defective_anyone-who-can-look-me-in-the-eye-and-sa_1966363.jpg)

> [Skepticism rather than credulity is the highest principle that the human intellect can use to ennoble our existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/skepticism-rather-than-credulity-is-the-highest-principle-that-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/758/christopher-hitchens-117_credulity_skepticism-rather-than-credulity-is-the_651120.jpg)

> [The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-cause-of-my-life-has-been-to-oppose-superstition-it-s-a-battle/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1c4/christopher-hitchens-117_battle_the-cause-of-my-life-has-been-to-oppose_2204543.jpg)

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## More by Christopher Hitchens

> [“The spirit of our accurate and exact philosophy is outraged by conclusions that contradict each other so glaringly.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-spirit-of-our-accurate-and-exact-philosophy-is-outraged-by/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [“Many governments employ torture but this was the first time that the element of Saturnalia and pornography in the process had been made so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/many-governments-employ-torture-but-this-was-the-first-time-that-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [ It's \[Los Angeles\] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-los-angeles-mostly-full-of-nonsense-and-delusion-and-egomania/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-be-against-rationalization-is-not-the-same-as-to-be-opposed-to/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [ \[Religion\] attacks us in our deepest integrity - the core of our self-respect. Religion says that we would not know right from wrong, we… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/religion-attacks-us-in-our-deepest-integrity-the-core-of-our-self/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [“In the very recent past, we have seen the Church of Rome befouled by its complicity with the unpardonable sin of child rape, or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-the-very-recent-past-we-have-seen-the-church-of-rome-befouled-by/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-surprising-to-me-how-many-of-my-friends-send-christmas-cards-or/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-there-were-groups-of-secularists-at-hospitals-who-went-round/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-are-after-all-atheists-who-say-they-wish-the-fable-were-true/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [“It isn’t so long since a test of Anglican orthodoxy was applied to anyone seeking to study or teach at Oxford and Cambridge universities.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-isn-t-so-long-since-a-test-of-anglican-orthodoxy-was-applied-to/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered-undesireable-qualities-in/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-much-worse-to-see-a-woman-drunk-than-a-man-i-don-t-know-quite/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [It's true that obscenity is a matter of taste and in the eye of the beholder.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-true-that-obscenity-is-a-matter-of-taste-and-in-the-eye-of-the/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [I worked out early on to give up things I couldn't do well at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-worked-out-early-on-to-give-up-things-i-couldn-t-do-well-at-all/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

> [Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/writing-is-what-s-important-to-me-and-anything-that-helps-me-do-that/)

[Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/)

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                        "text": "Unless a reincarnationist is willing to say there was a 'first generation' of souls created with the first humans, he is exposed to absurdity by the recency of human life on the planet.",
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                        "text": "We know that our life is essentially tragic. I'm absolutely not for handing over that very important department of our psyche to those who say, \"Why didn't you say so before? God has a plan for you in mind.\"",
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                        "text": "My favorite time in the cycles of public life is the time when the Pope is dead and they haven't elected a new one. There's no one in the world who is infallible for those weeks. And you know, I don't miss it.",
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                        "text": "Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds?",
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                        "text": "“the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it.”",
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                        "text": "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'...",
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                        "text": "MT [Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.",
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                        "text": "When I am at home, I never go near the synagogue unless, say, there is a bar or bat mitzvah involving the children of friends. But when I am traveling, in a country where Jewish life is scarce or endangered, I often make a visit to the shul.",
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                        "text": "At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.",
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                        "text": "“here is something that is impossible for anyone to believe. The human species has been in existence as Homo sapiens for (let us not quarrel about the exact total) at least one hundred and fifty thousand years. An instant in evolutionary time, this is nonetheless a vast history when contemplated by primates with brains and imaginations of the dimensions that we can boast. In order to subscribe to monotheistic religion, one must believe that humans were born, struggled, and expired during this time, often dying in childbirth or for want of elementary nurture, and with a life-expectancy of perhaps three decades at most. Add to these factors the turf wars between discrepant groups and tribes, alarming outbreaks of disease, which had no germ theory to explain let alone palliate them, and associated natural disasters and human tragedies. And yet, for all these millennia, heaven watched with indifference and then—and only in the last six thousand years at the very least—decided that it was time to intervene as well as redeem. And heaven would only intervene and redeem in remote areas of the Middle East, thus ensuring that many more generations would expire before the news could begin to spread! Let me send a voice to Sinai and cement a pact with just one tribe of dogged and greedy yokels. Let me lend a son to be torn to pieces because he is misunderstood. . . . Let me tell the angel Gabriel to prompt an illiterate and uncultured merchant into rhetorical flights. At last the darkness that I have imposed will lift! The willingness even to entertain such elaborately mad ideas involves much more than the suspension of disbelief, or the dumb credulity that greets magic tricks. It also involves ignoring or explaining away the many religious beliefs that antedated Moses.”",
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                        "text": "“What a sight! This infinitely proceeding division of society into the most manifold races opposed to one another by petty antipathies, uneasy consciences and brutal mediocrity, and which, precisely because of their reciprocal ambiguous and distrustful attitude, are all, without exception although with various formalities, treated by their rulers as conceded existences. And they must recognize and acknowledge as a concession of heaven the very fact that they are mastered, ruled, possessed! And on the other side are the rulers themselves, whose greatness is in inverse proportion to their number! Criticism dealing with this content is criticism in a hand-to-hand fight, and in such a fight the point is not whether the opponent is a noble, equal, interesting opponent, the point is to strike him. The point is not to let the Germans have a minute for self-deception and resignation. The actual pressure must be made more pressing by adding to it consciousness of pressure, the shame must be made more shameful by publicizing it.”",
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                        "text": "“As a convinced atheist, I ought to agree with Voltaire that Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way the root of religious evil. Without the stern, joyless rabbis and their 613 dour prohibitions, we might have avoided the whole nightmare of the Old Testament, and the brutal, crude wrenching of that into prophecy-derived Christianity, and the later plagiarism and mutation of Judaism and Christianity into the various rival forms of Islam. Much of the time, I do concur with Voltaire, but not without acknowledging that Judaism is dialectical. There is, after all, a specifically Jewish version of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, with a specifically Jewish name—the Haskalah —for itself. The term derives from the word for 'mind' or 'intellect,' and it is naturally associated with ethics rather than rituals, life rather than prohibitions, and assimilation over 'exile' or 'return.' It's everlastingly linked to the name of the great German teacher Moses Mendelssohn, one of those conspicuous Jewish hunchbacks who so upset and embarrassed Isaiah Berlin. (The other way to upset or embarrass Berlin, I found, was to mention that he himself was a cousin of Menachem Schneerson, the 'messianic' Lubavitcher rebbe .) However, even pre-enlightenment Judaism forces its adherents to study and think, it reluctantly teaches them what others think, and it may even teach them how to think also.”",
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                        "text": "“It is vain philosophy that supposes more causes than are exactly adequate to explain the phenomena of things. . . . You assert that the construction of the animal machine, the fitness of certain animals to certain situations, the connexion between the organs of perception and that which is perceived; the relation between every thing which exists, and that which tends to preserve it in its existence, imply design. It is manifest that if the eye could not see, nor the stomach digest, the human frame could not preserve its present mode of existence. It is equally certain, however, that the elements of its composition, if they did not exist in one form, must exist in another; and that the combinations which they would form, must so long as they endured, derive support for their peculiar mode of being from their fitness to the circumstances of their situation. It by no means follows, that because a being exists, performing certain functions, he was fitted by another being to the performance of these functions. So rash a conclusion would conduct, as I have before shewn, to an absurdity; and it becomes infinitely more unwarrantable from the consideration that the known laws of matter and motion, suffice to unravel, even in the present imperfect state of moral and physical science, the majority of those difficulties which the hypothesis of a Deity was invented to explain. Doubtless no disposition of inert matter, or matter deprived of qualities, could ever have composed an animal, a tree, or even a stone. But matter deprived of qualities, is an abstraction, concerning which it is impossible to form an idea. Matter, such as we behold it, is not inert. It is infinitely active and subtile.”",
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                        "text": "“The clear awareness of having been born into a losing struggle need not lead one into despair. I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on—only henceforth in my absence. (It's the second of those thoughts: the edition of the newspaper that will come out on the day after I have gone, that is the more distressing.) Much more horrible, though, would be the announcement that the party was continuing forever, and that I was forbidden to leave. Whether it was a hellishly bad party or a party that was perfectly heavenly in every respect, the moment that it became eternal and compulsory would be the precise moment that it began to pall.”",
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                        "text": "“Even if it were possible to cast my horoscope in this one life, and to make an accurate prediction about my future, it would not be possible to 'show' it to me because as soon as I saw it my future would change by definition. This is why Werner Heisenberg's adaptation of the Hays Office—the so-called principle of uncertainty whereby the act of measuring something has the effect of altering the measurement—is of such importance. In my case the difference is often made by publicity. For example, and to boast of one of my few virtues, I used to derive pleasure from giving my time to bright young people who showed promise as writers and who asked for my help. Then some profile of me quoted someone who disclosed that I liked to do this. Then it became something widely said of me, whereupon it became almost impossible for me to go on doing it, because I started to receive far more requests than I could respond to, let alone satisfy. Perception modifies reality: when I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick.”",
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                        "text": "“If you were offered the chance to live your own life again, would you seize the opportunity? The only real philosophical answer is automatically self-contradictory: 'Only if I did not know that I was doing so.' To go through the entire experience once more would be banal and Sisyphean—even if it did build muscle—whereas to wish to be young again and to have the benefit of one's learned and acquired existence is not at all to wish for a repeat performance, or a Groundhog Day. And the mind ought to, but cannot, set some limits to wish-thinking. All right, same me but with more money, an even sturdier penis, slightly different parents, a briefer latency period… the thing is absurd. I seriously would like to know what it was to be a woman, but like blind Tiresias would also want the option of re-metamorphosing if I wished. How terrible it is that we have so many more desires than opportunities.”",
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                        "text": "I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.",
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                        "text": "All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.",
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                        "text": "Your ideal authors ought to pull you from the foundering of your previous existence, not smilingly guide you into a friendly and peaceable harbor.",
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                        "text": "“Question: “What do you most value in your friends?\" Answer: \"Their continued existence.”",
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                        "text": "My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a 'race' life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.",
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                        "text": "Anyone who can look me in the eye and say they prefer the story of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed to the life of Socrates is intellectually defective.",
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                        "text": "The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition.",
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}
```