Christopher Hitchens Quotes

I don't tend to think in terms of a moral authority - be a good boy, do good things - more in terms of what feels right.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

You do what you want and know is right. That is the only law.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

You have to make your choices however you see fit and just keep your integrity as best you can.

If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined.

Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose.

Religion attacks us in our deepest integrity by saying we wouldn't be able to make a moral decision without it.

It's hard to explain," said Brutha. "But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave... you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.

Integrity is the value we set on ourselves. It is a fulfillment of the duty we owe ourselves. An honorable man or woman will personally commit to live up to certain self-imposed expectations. They need no outside check or control. They are honorable in their inner core.

All you can do everyday, is do what you believe is right. That's what I do, and what will be, will be.

Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?

I don't trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.

The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.

If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action

I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one's self-respect.

Humans have more moral responsibility perhaps, because they are capable of reasoning.

Morality, for all the conditioning to which the human mind has been and is subjected, is always a personal choice in the last analysis.

By right, as the word is employed in this subject, has always been understood discretion, that is, a full and complete power of either doing a thing or omitting it, without the person's becoming liable to animadversion or censure from another, that is, in other words, without his incurring any degree of turpitude or guilt. Now in this sense I affirm that man has no rights, no discretionary power whatever.

You take souls for vegetables.... The gardener can decide what will become of his carrots but no one can choose the good of others for them.

Good and evil are not what our parents told us, not what our church tells us, or our country, not what anybody else tells us! All of us decide good and evil for ourselves, automatically, by choosing what we want to do!

If you have self-respect, you will take satisfaction in being well groomed and will not allow yourself to perform shabbily. You will continue to work toward high standards and goals to serve others, to continue and to practice self-discipline. You will not compromise your standards or beliefs.

Most of us follow our conscience as we follow a wheelbarrow. We push it in front of us in the direction we want to go.