I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.
Interpretation
Unbelief does not necessarily lead to good behavior or morals.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens emphasizes that a lack of belief in a deity does not inherently correlate with moral integrity or ethical behavior. He critiques the assumption that faith is the only source of morality, asserting that nonbelievers can possess good conduct, but it is not a given simply because one does not hold religious beliefs.
In practice
In a debate about the role of religion in morality, one could cite this quote to highlight nonbelievers' ethical frameworks.
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.
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.
[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 β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve 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.
Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.
All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly.
Oh, my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low, I'm at home and at ease on a track that I know not, And restless and lost on a road that I know.
It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides.
If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you. -
Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional.
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