Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.
Interpretation
Thinking independently leads to greater happiness and understanding.
This quote emphasizes the importance of independent thought and creativity. By choosing to think for oneself rather than conforming to societal pressures or expectations, an individual can discover a deeper sense of happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom in life. Hitchens advocates for the courage to embrace one's own ideas and beliefs, suggesting that such self-discovery is essential for personal fulfillment.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage students to embrace their individuality during a graduation speech.
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 of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
For the most part, I do the thing which my own nature prompts me to do. It is embarrassing to earn so much respect and love for it.
I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this," well, that would be enough immortality for me.
You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
Humility, that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.
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