Christopher Hitchens, Letters To A Young Contrarian Quotes

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

I want to urge you very strongly to travel as much as you can, and to evolve yourself as an internationalist. It's as important a part of your education as a radical as the reading of any book.

The forces of piety have always and everywhere been the sworn enemy of the open mind and the open book.

Thus in order to be a "radical" one must be open to the possibility that one's own core assumptions are misconceived.

When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry, ' we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen.

Try your hardest to combat atrophy and routine. To question The Obvious and the given is an essential element of the maxim 'de omnius dubitandum' [All is to be doubted].