A sure sign of ineptitude and malice is manifested when one's attacker is willing to cover himself with mud in order to try and make some of it adhere to his target.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the futility and moral bankruptcy of attacking someone while resorting to underhanded tactics.
Christopher Hitchens emphasizes that individuals lacking virtue are willing to engage in dirty tactics to undermine others. This quote serves as a cautionary observation on the nature of personal attacks, revealing how those who resort to dishonest behavior do so out of a place of ineptitude and malice, rather than genuine conflict. It suggests that the actions and motivations of the attacker speak more about their character than the target's shortcomings.
In practice
During a debate, I used this quote to illustrate how attacks with no grounding reflect poorly on the attacker.
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 — 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.
Remember, you can be exalted without a college degree. You can be exalted without being slender and beautiful. You can be exalted without having a successful career. You can be exalted if you are not rich and famous. So focus the best that you can on those things in life that will lead you back to the presence of God - keeping all things in their proper balance.
Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness ... in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.
Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.
One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.
He who is and remains true to himself and to others has the most attractive quality of the greatest talent.
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