Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
Interpretation
Focus on the task at hand rather than questioning its enjoyment.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens emphasizes the importance of engaging fully in activities without second-guessing whether they are enjoyable. He suggests that constantly evaluating the fun factor can detract from the experience and that one should immerse themselves in what they are doing rather than seek external validation or approval from others.
In practice
In a team meeting when discussing project ideas, you might say this quote to encourage focus on the goals.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.
I would only believe in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!
We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood.
If we take the poor away from the Gospel, we won't be able to understand the whole message of Jesus Christ.
I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
Silence came before creation, and the heavens were spread without a word
For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.
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