Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake.
Interpretation
Trust is based on evidence and experience, while faith is believing without proof. True friendship is built on mutual trust.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens distinguishes between trust and faith, emphasizing that trust is grounded in shared experiences and reliability, while faith often involves a blind belief in someone without assurance. He stresses that a true friend is someone you can trust, implying that placing faith in people without a solid foundation can lead to disappointment, thereby highlighting the importance of establishing trust in relationships.
In practice
This quote could be referenced in a speech about the importance of building trust in friendships.
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.
We each have been betrayed. Let yourself picture and remember the many ways this is true. Feel the sorrow you have carried from this past. Now sense that you can release this burden of pain by gradually extending forgiveness as your heart is ready.
We have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.
I don't have a horror story to share like the ones we have heard from so many women in the #MeToo movement... But when you really listen to women, you begin to understand the million little ways in which all women are made less and denied the opportunity to contribute to their communities and their country.
I am not sure that the inner world of teenage girls has changed. What's most important to kids today is still the same stuff.
The confusing of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.
My mother always told me, 'Don't get married. Make your own life. You don't need a man.'
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