[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.
Interpretation
Denial often leads to attempts to justify one's beliefs or actions.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens highlights the psychological process where individuals first deny an uncomfortable truth, which subsequently prompts them to create justifications for their denial. This reflects a common human tendency to avoid facing the reality of a situation, leading to rationalizations that may not hold true upon closer scrutiny.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion about cognitive biases, this quote could illustrate how people often cope with uncomfortable truths.
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.
One sometimes feels a guest of one's time and not a member of its household.
Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.
But I'm not a saint yet. I'm an alcoholic. I'm a drug addict. I'm homosexual. I'm a genius.
A house built on granite and strong foundations, not even the onslaught of pouring rain, gushing torrents and strong winds will be able to pull down. Some people have written the story of my life representing as truth what in fact derives from ignorance, error or envy; but they cannot shake the truth from its place, even if they attempt to make others believe it.
Man is to man either a god or a wolf.
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
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