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"You don't say 'they all do it' unless you know you've been doing it too."
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"Dogma in power does have a unique chilling ingredient not exhibited by power, however ghastly, wielded for its own traditional sake."
Authority

"Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should have talked before I dared to write it. I never launch any little essay without the hope-and the fear, because the encounter may also be embarrassing-that I shall draw a letter that begins, 'Dear Mr. Hitchens, it seems that you are unaware that It is in this sense that authorship is collaborative with 'the reader.' And there's no help for it: you only find out what you ought to have known by pretending to know at least some of it already.It doesn't matter how obscure or arcane or esoteric your place of publication may be: some sweet law ensures that the person who should be scrutinizing your work eventually does do so."
Writing

"I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor."
Humor

"Not to dampen any parade, but if one asks if there is a single thing about Mr. Obama's Senate record, or state legislature record, or current program, that could possibly justify his claim to the presidency one gets ... what? Not much. Similarly lightweight unqualified 'white' candidates have overcome this objection, to be sure, but what kind of standard is that?"
Politics

"For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick."
Motivation

"The President is also captured in a well-worn TV news clip, making a boilerplate response to a question on terrorism and then asking the reporters to watch his drive. Well, that's what you get if you catch the President on a golf course. If Eisenhower had done this, as he often did, it would have been presented as calm statesmanship. If Clinton had done it, as he often did, it would have shown his charm."
Leadership

"Many writers, especially male ones, have told us that it is the decease of the father which opens the prospect of one's own end, and affords an unobstructed view of the undug but awaiting grave that says 'you're next.' Unfilial as this may seem, that was not at all so in my own case. It was only when I watched Alexander [my own son] being born that I knew at once that my own funeral director had very suddenly, but quite unmistakably, stepped onto the stage. I was surprised by how calmly I took this, but also by how reluctant I was to mention it to my male contemporaries."
Reflection

"The Auden/Kallman relationship had this to be said for it: It affirmed that it's better to be blatant than latent."
Identity

"It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends."
Culture

"It would not be an exaggeration to say that the land question in Zimbabwe is the single most decisive one."
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"You don't say 'they all do it' unless you know you've been doing it too."
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Personal Development

"Church was never meant to be a place for gods to gather, but for devils wanting to shed their horns for halos."
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Personal Development

"Most human beings would have never been pained by the death of a human being if they had never seen a human being or pretending to be pained by that."
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Personal Development

"Just as some people may conceal their own sinfulness thus seeming better than the norm, others expose their own sinfulness thus seeming worse than the norm."
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Personal Development

"He who acquired all his wealth by 'being at the right place at the right time' is hypocritical by being angry for losing all his wealth because of his 'being at the wrong place at the wrong time.'"
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Personal Development

"I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness."
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Personal Development

"It is neither just the religious, the spiritual, the power-hungry, the evil, the ignorant, the corrupt, the Christian, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Jew, nor the atheist that makes a hypocrite, but being a human being. Any man who thinks himself to be free of hypocrisy while committed to cherry-picking others for such, I am confident, the Almighty can prove to him a great deal of his own hypocrisy even beyond his earthly comprehension."
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Personal Development

"Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy."
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Personal Development

"There's a lot more hypocrisy than before. Racism has gone back underground."
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Personal Development

"We enjoy observing kindness and compassion in others, while we act as evils."
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Personal Development
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