I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a sense of preparedness for unexpected events, suggesting a belief in the inevitability of certain tragedies.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens reflects on his perception of the world leading up to the tragic events of September 11. He conveys a feeling of resignation and expectation, indicating that he believed such an event was not just possible but likely. This perspective invites deeper contemplation on human awareness and the nature of societal tensions, emphasizing how some individuals can anticipate calamities while others remain oblivious.
In practice
In a speech discussing the importance of crisis management, one could reference Hitchens on September 11 to highlight the need for preparedness.
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.
Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory.
The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people.
Both of them were ahead of their time, but they didn't live long enough to see the time they were ahead of.
To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life.
Itβs always about, somehow, finding a part of myself that is relevant, and then turning the volume up on that particular part. So, I am all of the characters I've ever played, and I am none of them at the same time.
I don't think it had ever occurred to me that man's supremacy is not primarily due to his brain, as most of the books would have one think. It is due to the brain's capacity to make use of the information conveyed to it by a narrow band of visible light rays. His civilization, all that he had achieved or might achieve, hung upon his ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet. Without that, he was lost.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.