It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the paradox of certainty, suggesting that the only true certainty is the existence of uncertainty.
Christopher Hitchens' quote emphasizes the idea that while we often seek certainties in life, the only absolute truth is that life is filled with uncertainties. This perspective challenges our desire for fixed answers, suggesting that we should embrace the unpredictable nature of existence.
In practice
During a philosophical debate about the nature of life.
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 say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.
Sleep lingers all our lifetime about our eyes, as night hovers all day in the boughs of the fir-tree.
The air was stifling, but he liked it because it was stifling city air, full of excitingly unpleasant smells, dangerous music, and the distant sound of warring police tribes.
The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
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