The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity
Interpretation
Those lacking a sense of humor are unfit for power as they impose dullness and sameness.
Christopher Hitchens emphasizes the dangers of humorless individuals wielding power, suggesting that their lack of humor fosters rigidity, tedium, and a monotonous environment. The quote warns that such individuals may enforce an oppressive certainty about what is 'right', which stifles creativity and individuality.
In practice
During a leadership seminar, to emphasize the importance of humor in management.
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.
GUILLOTINE, n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason.
I am truly a product of Hollywood in-breeding. When two celebrities mate, someone like me is the result.
I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible. I felt I was deliberately being encouraged and I was overwhelmed.
A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.
Tomorrow night I appear for the first time before a Boston audience - 4000 critics.
If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing.
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