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#1

“Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.”
― Bertrand Russell

606 likes

#2

“So far as I can remember there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.”
― Bertrand Russell

213 likes

#3

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov

tags: democracy, elite, elitism, elitist, voter, voting

2717 likes

#4

“In adolescence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics.”
― Bertrand Russell

tags: happiness, life, mathematics

5 likes

#5

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy

tags: attitude, definitions, fear, happiness, orthodoxy, puritanism, strictness

524 likes

#6

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
― H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy

tags: belief, democracy, government, humor, ignorance, intelligence, pathetic, political-commentary, politics, public-office

361 likes

#7

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy

tags: inner-voice

276 likes

#8

“We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

tags: funny, humor, joke, kids, respect, smart, wife

268 likes

#9

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.”
― H.L. Mencken

tags: certainty, skepticism, social-commentary, tolerance

299 likes

#10

“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”
― H. L. Mencken

224 likes

#11

“I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes.”
― H.L. Mencken

229 likes

#12

“A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.”
― H.L. Mencken

tags: black-cat, blind, cat, funny, humor, joke, lie, lies, looking, man, metaphysics, misattributed-h-l-mencken, philosopher, philosophy, religion, search, theologian, theology, untruth, untruthful, wishful-thinking

150 likes

#13

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain

tags: attributed-no-source, education

18242 likes

#14

“Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
― Plato

tags: discipline, education, mentoring, philosophy

2640 likes

#15

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

tags: attributed-no-source, human-nature, humor, infinity, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe

148767 likes

#16

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

tags: humor, perspective, science

5867 likes

#17

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: atheism, reason, science, skeptic

3344 likes

#18

“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

tags: affection, atheism, cats, dogs, food, god, pets, religion, shelter, water

3382 likes

#19

“Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

tags: rational-thought, science

1072 likes

#20

“My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: freedom-of-speech, humor

430 likes

#21

“To the dumb question "Why me?" the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: why not?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Mortality

tags: fate

397 likes

#22

“The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Mortality

tags: prayer

260 likes

#23

“Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and—since there is no other metaphor—also the soul.”
― Christopher Hitchens

157 likes

#24

“I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: ayn-rand, individualism, libertarianism, objectivism, selfishness

229 likes

#25

“I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information.”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: information, journalism, mainstream-media, newspapers

182 likes

#26

“Time spent arguing is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

tags: argumentation, debate

153 likes

#27

“Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

tags: atheism, christianity

111 likes

#28

“Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.”
― Christopher Hitchens

160 likes

#29

“Faith is the surrender of the mind, it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other animals. It's our need to believe and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. ... Out of all the virtues, all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: animal, atheism, faith, mammals, religion, virtue

83 likes

#30

“The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex, and picnics.”
― Christopher Hitchens

tags: anal-sex, champagne, lobster, picnics

74 likes

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