Christopher Hitchens

Born 13 April 1949 · Died 15 December 2011

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS was born in 1949 in England and was a graduate of Balliol College at Oxford University. He was the father of three children and the author of more than twenty books and pamphlets, including collections of essays, criticism, and reportage.

Quotes

“Intellectuals never sound more foolish than when posing as the last civilised man.”
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere
“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
Letters to a Young Contrarian
“An old definition of a gentleman: someone who is never rude except on purpose.”
Letters to a Young Contrarian
“Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”
Letters to a Young Contrarian
“We have preachers and savants who dilate endlessly on the sanctity of family and childhood but who tolerate a system in which a casual observer can correlate a child's social origin with its physical well-being.”
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports