---
title: "Best Politics Quotes by Christopher Hitchens"
description: "73 Politics quotes by Christopher Hitchens. Plus more from Christopher Hitchens and more Politics sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9e/christopher-hitchens-117_building_i-don-t-think-consensus-building-politic_1496514.jpg"
---

> [I don't think consensus-building politics is what I'm meant to be doing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-don-t-think-consensus-building-politics-is-what-i-m-meant-to-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9e/christopher-hitchens-117_building_i-don-t-think-consensus-building-politic_1496514.jpg)

> [“Dogma in power does have a unique chilling ingredient not exhibited by power, however ghastly, wielded for its own traditional sake.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/dogma-in-power-does-have-a-unique-chilling-ingredient-not-exhibited/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/90b/christopher-hitchens-117_dogma_dogma-in-power-does-have-a-unique-chilli_2562616.jpg)

> [My political life has been informed by the view that if there was any truth to religion there wouldn't really be any…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/my-political-life-has-been-informed-by-the-view-that-if-there-was-any/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf7/christopher-hitchens-117_has-beens_my-political-life-has-been-informed-by-t_253478.jpg)

> [We become accomplices in evil every time we seek to soothe the unslakable appetites of the crime family that sits in Pyongyang.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/we-become-accomplices-in-evil-every-time-we-seek-to-soothe-the/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b16/christopher-hitchens-117_accomplices_we-become-accomplices-in-evil-every-time_432166.jpg)

> [“There is no conceit equal to false modesty, and there is no politics like antipolitics”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-is-no-conceit-equal-to-false-modesty-and-there-is-no-politics/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/867/christopher-hitchens-117_false-modesty_there-is-no-conceit-equal-to-false-modes_88827.jpg)

> [“Don't write in to ask whether I would prefer Gingrich to Clinton. Ask, rather, whether Clinton prefers Gingrich to you. Go triangulate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/don-t-write-in-to-ask-whether-i-would-prefer-gingrich-to-clinton-ask/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/851/christopher-hitchens-117_1997_don-t-write-in-to-ask-whether-i-would-pr_834833.jpg)

> [The advice I've been giving to people all my life - that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-advice-i-ve-been-giving-to-people-all-my-life-that-you-may-not-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c25/christopher-hitchens-117_advice_the-advice-i-ve-been-giving-to-people-al_3006033.jpg)

> [I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-learned-that-very-often-the-most-intolerant-and-narrow-minded/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/735/christopher-hitchens-117_intolerant_i-learned-that-very-often-the-most-intol_3217066.jpg)

> [The crucial distinction between systems...was no longer ideological. The main political difference was between those who did, and those who did not,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-crucial-distinction-between-systems-was-no-longer-ideological-the/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/453/christopher-hitchens-117_believe_the-crucial-distinction-between-systems_2803746.jpg)

> [“If you say you're a unifier, you expect and usually get applause. I'm a divider. Politics is division by definition, if there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/if-you-say-you-re-a-unifier-you-expect-and-usually-get-applause-i-m-a/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/961/christopher-hitchens-117_politics_if-you-say-you-re-a-unifier-you-expect-a_1603017.jpg)

> [“Hesitate once, hesitate twice, hesitate a hundred times before employing political standards as a device for the analysis and appreciation of poetry.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/hesitate-once-hesitate-twice-hesitate-a-hundred-times-before/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/315/christopher-hitchens-117_gratitude_hesitate-once-hesitate-twice-hesitate-a_1491828.jpg)

> [“Mrs. Clinton, speaking to a black church audience on Martin Luther King Day last year, did describe President George W. Bush as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/mrs-clinton-speaking-to-a-black-church-audience-on-martin-luther-king/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aba/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_mrs-clinton-speaking-to-a-black-church-a_1471025.jpg)

> [“Some say that because the United States was wrong before, it cannot possibly be right now, or has not the right to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/some-say-that-because-the-united-states-was-wrong-before-it-cannot/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e18/christopher-hitchens-117_abolition_some-say-that-because-the-united-states_1741551.jpg)

> [“The prerogative of the Crown; the enthronement of 'The Crown in Parliament', is the special and particular symbol of our status as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-prerogative-of-the-crown-the-enthronement-of-the-crown-in/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c2/christopher-hitchens-117_politics_the-prerogative-of-the-crown-the-enthron_2791033.jpg)

> [“Normally, anything done in the name of 'the kids' strikes me as either slightly sentimental or faintly sinister—that redolence of moral blackmail…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/normally-anything-done-in-the-name-of-the-kids-strikes-me-as-either/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/200/christopher-hitchens-117_censorship_normally-anything-done-in-the-name-of-th_2453304.jpg)

> [“Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/then-all-at-once-our-personal-and-political-quarrels-were-made-very/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c72/christopher-hitchens-117_2001_then-all-at-once-our-personal-and-politi_2880594.jpg)

> [“One of the juiciest pleasures of life is to be able to salute and embrace, as elected leaders and honored representatives, people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/one-of-the-juiciest-pleasures-of-life-is-to-be-able-to-salute-and/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/63e/christopher-hitchens-117_adam-michnik_one-of-the-juiciest-pleasures-of-life-is_808529.jpg)

> [“I have been taunted on various platforms recently for becoming a neo-conservative, and have been the object of some fascinating web-site and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-have-been-taunted-on-various-platforms-recently-for-becoming-a-neo/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e3f/christopher-hitchens-117_antisemitism_i-have-been-taunted-on-various-platforms_2239968.jpg)

> [Haven't we all heard some irritating person saying that if so-and-so is elected, then he/she is absolutely definitely leaving the country? There…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/haven-t-we-all-heard-some-irritating-person-saying-that-if-so-and-so/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/66f/christopher-hitchens-117_chiefs_haven-t-we-all-heard-some-irritating-per_2105971.jpg)

> [“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-difference-to-the-welfare-of-gaza/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb6/christopher-hitchens-117_activism_the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-differ_2039526.jpg)

> [“The matter on which I judge people is their willingness, or ability, to handle contradiction. Thus Paine was better than Burke when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-matter-on-which-i-judge-people-is-their-willingness-or-ability-to/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a3/christopher-hitchens-117_america-first-commit_the-matter-on-which-i-judge-people-is-th_601985.jpg)

> [“Though he never actually joined it, he was close to some civilian elements of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/though-he-never-actually-joined-it-he-was-close-to-some-civilian/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9fa/christopher-hitchens-117_atheism_though-he-never-actually-joined-it-he-wa_684346.jpg)

> [“would sometimes say, that if life were made what it might be, by good government and good education, it would be worth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/would-sometimes-say-that-if-life-were-made-what-it-might-be-by-good/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/51d/christopher-hitchens-117_education_would-sometimes-say-that-if-life-were-ma_746414.jpg)

> [“Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/religions-and-states-and-classes-and-tribes-and-nations-do-not-have/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31c/christopher-hitchens-117_albert-einstein_religions-and-states-and-classes-and-tri_527928.jpg)

> [“So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/so-this-is-where-all-the-vapid-talk-about-the-soul-of-the-universe-is/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/408/christopher-hitchens-117_2010_so-this-is-where-all-the-vapid-talk-abou_322763.jpg)

> [ “It comes as no surprise to find \[Norman\] Mailer embracing \[in the book On God \] a form of Manicheanism, pitting the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-comes-as-no-surprise-to-find-norman-mailer-embracing-in-the-book/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/90c/christopher-hitchens-117_book-review_it-comes-as-no-surprise-to-find-norman-m_1244888.jpg)

> [“This brings us to the crux moment in the supposed 'Show Trial' melodrama. Employing the confusing and confused testimony of Jude Wanniski…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/this-brings-us-to-the-crux-moment-in-the-supposed-show-trial/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b92/christopher-hitchens-117_better-job_this-brings-us-to-the-crux-moment-in-the_389439.jpg)

> [“Yet isn't it all—all of it, every single episode and detail of the Clinton saga—exactly like that? And isn't some of it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/yet-isn-t-it-all-all-of-it-every-single-episode-and-detail-of-the/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/239/christopher-hitchens-117_1992_yet-isn-t-it-all-all-of-it-every-single_2581732.jpg)

> [“1. Bangladesh… In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/1-bangladesh-in-1971-kissinger-overrode-all-advice-in-order-to-2/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/625/christopher-hitchens-117_1971_1-bangladesh-in-1971-kissinger-overrode_2022232.jpg)

> [“Seeing the name Hillary in a headline last week—a headline about a life that had involved real achievement—I felt a mouse stirring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/seeing-the-name-hillary-in-a-headline-last-week-a-headline-about-a/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/89d/christopher-hitchens-117_1947_seeing-the-name-hillary-in-a-headline-la_2729551.jpg)

> [“At least two important conservative thinkers, Ayn Rand and Leo Strauss, were unbelievers or nonbelievers and in any case contemptuous of Christianity.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/at-least-two-important-conservative-thinkers-ayn-rand-and-leo-strauss/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/824/christopher-hitchens-117_2000_at-least-two-important-conservative-thin_621738.jpg)

> [“One might come up with other and kinder distinctions (I shall not be doing so) but the plain fact about the senator…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/one-might-come-up-with-other-and-kinder-distinctions-i-shall-not-be/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a77/christopher-hitchens-117_2008_one-might-come-up-with-other-and-kinder_3011704.jpg)

> [There is a reason for the affected profession of " anarchist sympathies" among Tories and grandees, and of " libertarian principles" by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-is-a-reason-for-the-affected-profession-of-anarchist-sympathies/)

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

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e30/christopher-hitchens-117_affected_there-is-a-reason-for-the-affected-profe_355494.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": "“Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London Review of Books published to mark the events of September 11, 2001, Edward painted a picture of an almost fascist America where Arab and Muslim citizens were being daily terrorized by pogroms, these being instigated by men like Paul Wolfowitz who had talked of 'ending' the regimes that sheltered Al Quaeda. Again, I could hardly credit that these sentences were being produced by a cultured person, let alone printed by a civilized publication.”",
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                        "text": "“One of the juiciest pleasures of life is to be able to salute and embrace, as elected leaders and honored representatives, people whom you first met when they were on the run or in exile or (like Adam) in and out of jail. I was to have this experience again, and I hope to have it many more times in the future: it sometimes allows me to feel that life is full of point.”",
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                        "text": "“I have been taunted on various platforms recently for becoming a neo-conservative, and have been the object of some fascinating web-site and blog stuff, from the isolationist Right as well as from the peaceniks, who both argue in a semi-literate way that neo-conservativism is Trotskyism and 'permanent revolution' reborn. Sometimes, you have to comb an overt anti-Semitism out of this propaganda before you can even read it straight. And I can guarantee you that none of these characters has any idea at all of what the theory of 'permanent revolution' originally meant.”",
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                        "text": "Haven't we all heard some irritating person saying that if so-and-so is elected, then he/she is absolutely definitely leaving the country? There must be some reason why it is mainly liberals who tend to say this, but the chief thing to note about the promise is that it is usually an empty one.",
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                        "text": "“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test.”",
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                        "text": "“The matter on which I judge people is their willingness, or ability, to handle contradiction. Thus Paine was better than Burke when it came to the principle of the French revolution, but Burke did and said magnificent things when it came to Ireland, India and America. One of them was in some ways a revolutionary conservative and the other was a conservative revolutionary. It's important to try and contain multitudes. One of my influences was Dr Israel Shahak, a tremendously brave Israeli humanist who had no faith in collectivist change but took a Spinozist line on the importance of individuals. Gore Vidal's admirers, of whom I used to be one and to some extent remain one, hardly notice that his essential critique of America is based on Lindbergh and 'America First'—the most conservative position available. 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.”",
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                        "text": "“Though he never actually joined it, he was close to some civilian elements of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was the most Communist (and in the rather orthodox sense) of the Palestinian formations. I remember Edward once surprising me by saying, and apropos of nothing: 'Do you know something I have never done in my political career? I have never publicly criticized the Soviet Union. It’s not that I terribly sympathize with them or anything—it's just that the Soviets have never done anything to harm me, or us.' At the time I thought this a rather naïve statement, even perhaps a slightly contemptible one, but by then I had been in parts of the Middle East where it could come as a blessed relief to meet a consecrated Moscow-line atheist-dogmatist, if only for the comparatively rational humanism that he evinced amid so much religious barking and mania. It was only later to occur to me that Edward's pronounced dislike of George Orwell was something to which I ought to have paid more attention.”",
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                        "text": "“would sometimes say, that if life were made what it might be, by good government and good education, it would be worth having: but he never spoke with anything like enthusiasm even of that possibility. He never varied in rating intellectual enjoyments above all others, even in value as pleasures, independently of their ulterior benefits. The pleasures of the benevolent affections he placed high in the scale; and used to say, that he had never known a happy old man, except those who were able to live over again in the pleasures of the young. For passionate emotions of all sorts, and for everything which has been said or written in exaltation of them, he professed the greatest contempt. He regarded them as a form of madness. “The intense” was with him a bye-word of scornful disapprobation. He regarded as an aberration of the moral standard of modern times, compared with that of the ancients, the great stress laid upon feeling. Feelings, as such, he considered to be no proper subjects of praise or blame. Right and”",
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                        "text": "“Religions and states and classes and tribes and nations do not have to work or argue for their adherents and subjects. They more or less inherit them. Against this unearned patrimony there have always been speakers and writers who embody Einstein's injunction to 'remember your humanity and forget the rest.' It would be immodest to claim membership in this fraternity/sorority, but I hope not to have done anything to outrage it. Despite the idiotic sneer that such principles are 'fashionable,' it is always the ideas of secularism, libertarianism, internationalism, and solidarity that stand in need of reaffirmation.”",
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                        "text": "“So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The 'vacuum' will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labor of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific.”",
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                        "text": "“It comes as no surprise to find [Norman] Mailer embracing [in the book On God ] a form of Manicheanism, pitting the forces of light and darkness against each other in a permanent stand-off, with humanity as the battlefield. (When asked if Jesus is part of this battle, he responds rather loftily that he thinks it is a distinct possibility.) But it is at points like this that he talks as if all the late-night undergraduate talk sessions on the question of theism had become rolled into one. 'How can we not face up to the fact that if God is All-Powerful, He cannot be All-Good. Or She cannot be All-Good.' Mailer says that questions such as this have bedevilled 'theologians', whereas it would be more accurate to say that such questions, posed by philosophers, have attempted to put theologians out of business. A long exchange on the probability of reincarnation (known to Mailer sometimes as “karmic reassignment”) manages to fall slightly below the level of those undergraduate talk sessions. The Manichean stand-off leads Mailer, in closing, to speculate on what God might desire politically and to say: 'In different times, the heavens may have been partial to monarchy, to communism, and certainly the Lord was interested in democracy, in capitalism. (As was the Devil!)' I think it was at this point that I decided I would rather remember Mailer as the author of Harlot's Ghost and The Armies of the Night .”",
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                        "text": "“This brings us to the crux moment in the supposed 'Show Trial' melodrama. Employing the confusing and confused testimony of Jude Wanniski (who he also describes as a political nut-case, if not a nut-case flat-out, and to whom he introduced me in the first place) Blumenthal suggests that I concerted my testimony in advance with the House Republicans, notably James Rogan and Lindsey Graham. Feebly bridging the gap between sheer conjecture and outright conspiracy, Rogan is quoted as saying: 'Hitchens may well have called Lindsey..' I did not in fact do any such thing. Why should my denial be believed? It's not as if I care. I probably should have colluded with them, if my intention was to land a blow on Clinton (which it was) let alone to plant a Judas kiss on Blumenthal (which it was not). But every other fragment of Blumenthal's evidence and description shows—even boasts—that Congressman Graham was essentially punching air until the last day of the trial. That could not possibly have been true, especially in his cross-examination of Blumenthal, if he knew he had an ace in his vest-pocket all along. Only a tendency to paranoia or to all-explaining theories could suggest the contrary. I'd even be able to claim for myself, I hope, that if I'd truly wanted to gouge a deep or vengeful wound I could or would have made a better job of it.”",
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                        "text": "“Yet isn't it all—all of it, every single episode and detail of the Clinton saga—exactly like that? And isn't some of it a little bit more serious? For Sen. Clinton, something is true if it validates the myth of her striving and her 'greatness' (her overweening ambition in other words) and only ceases to be true when it no longer serves that limitless purpose. And we are all supposed to applaud the skill and the bare-faced bravado with which this is done. In the New Hampshire primary in 1992, she knowingly lied about her husband's uncontainable sex life and put him eternally in her debt. This is now thought of, and referred to in print, purely as a smart move on her part. In the Iowa caucuses of 2008, he returns the favor by telling a huge lie about his own record on the war in Iraq, falsely asserting that he was opposed to the intervention from the very start. This is thought of, and referred to in print, as purely a tactical mistake on his part: trying too hard to help the spouse. The happy couple has now united on an equally mendacious account of what they thought about Iraq and when they thought it. What would it take to break this cheap little spell and make us wake up and inquire what on earth we are doing when we make the Clinton family drama— yet again —a central part of our own politics?”",
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                        "text": "“1. Bangladesh… In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan… This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China… Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was ‘a basket case’ before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile… Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation… This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion—‘I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible’—suggests he may have been having the best of times… 3. Cyprus… Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. ‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created… The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred. 5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there are good judges who put this estimate on the low side. Kissinger was furious when news of his own collusion was leaked, because as well as breaking international law the Indonesians were also violating an agreement with the United States… Monroe Leigh ... pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?’ A good question, even if it did not and does not lie especially well in his mouth. It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough.”",
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                        "text": "“Seeing the name Hillary in a headline last week—a headline about a life that had involved real achievement—I felt a mouse stirring in the attic of my memory. Eventually, I was able to recall how the two Hillarys had once been mentionable in the same breath. On a first-lady goodwill tour of Asia in April 1995—the kind of banal trip that she now claims as part of her foreign-policy 'experience'—Mrs. Clinton had been in Nepal and been briefly introduced to the late Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest. Ever ready to milk the moment, she announced that her mother had actually named her for this famous and intrepid explorer. The claim 'worked' well enough to be repeated at other stops and even showed up in Bill Clinton's memoirs almost a decade later, as one more instance of the gutsy tradition that undergirds the junior senator from New York. Sen. Clinton was born in 1947, and Sir Edmund Hillary and his partner Tenzing Norgay did not ascend Mount Everest until 1953, so the story was self-evidently untrue and eventually yielded to fact-checking . Indeed, a spokeswoman for Sen. Clinton named Jennifer Hanley phrased it like this in a statement in October 2006, conceding that the tale was untrue but nonetheless charming: 'It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add.' Perfect. It worked, in other words, having been coined long after Sir Edmund became a bankable celebrity, but now its usefulness is exhausted and its untruth can safely be blamed on Mummy.”",
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                        "text": "“At least two important conservative thinkers, Ayn Rand and Leo Strauss, were unbelievers or nonbelievers and in any case contemptuous of Christianity. I have my own differences with both of these savants, but is the Republican Party really prepared to disown such modern intellectuals as it can claim, in favor of a shallow, demagogic and above all sectarian religiosity? Perhaps one could phrase the same question in two further ways. At the last election, the GOP succeeded in increasing its vote among American Jews by an estimated five percentage points. Does it propose to welcome these new adherents or sympathizers by yelling in the tones of that great Democrat bigmouth William Jennings Bryan? By insisting that evolution is 'only a theory'? By demanding biblical literalism and by proclaiming that the Messiah has already shown himself? If so, it will deserve the punishment for hubris that is already coming its way. (The punishment, in other words, that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson believed had struck America on Sept. 11, 2001. How can it be that such grotesque characters, calling down divine revenge on the workers in the World Trade Center, are allowed a respectful hearing, or a hearing at all, among patriotic Republicans?). [ . . . And Why I'm Most Certainly Not! -- The Wall Street Journal , Commentary Column. May 5, 2005]”",
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                        "text": "“One might come up with other and kinder distinctions (I shall not be doing so) but the plain fact about the senator from New York is surely that she is a known quantity who has already been in the White House purely as the result of a relationship with a man, and not at all a quixotic outsider who represents the aspirations of an 'out' group, let alone a whole sex or gender.”",
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                        "text": "There is a reason for the affected profession of \" anarchist sympathies\" among Tories and grandees, and of \" libertarian principles\" by Hobbesian yahoos of the right. Among the former, one sees the upholding of the view that a gentleman's business and property are his own, and none of the government's. Among the latter, a distaste for democracy, for taxation, and for the need to consult others about the planet.",
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