Christopher Hitchens Quotes

Agnosticism is the everlasting perhaps.

I believe that either Jupiter has life or it doesn't. But I neither believe that it does, nor do I believe that it doesn't.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.

Not believing has a sickness which is believing a little.

I am not a believer, not an atheist, not an agnostic. I am still awake at night, asking how? I am more content with the question than I would be with an answer.

I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions.

I may have had a prejudice against agnosticism as a body of thought: sort of a fence-sitting theory, where you can't make up your mind one way or another.

The older I get, the less I know. By that I mean the less I am sure of. I view people with strong opinions on the big stuff with distrust. I don't think we should have certain certainties on faith and politics; I think we should be open-minded.

Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.

My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.

What do I believe? I do not know; I do not know; I do not know.

I'm always doubtful. Everything I do is always doubtful. When you're trying to differentiate, there's going to be this gut sense, is this right? If you're not having doubt, then you're not pushing it hard enough, or you're not looking at the details close enough. You need to be feeling that doubt every single day.

Do not feel certain of anything.

To a certain extent all philosophers have been involved in a systematic questioning that undermines confidence and certainty. Philosophy as a whole unleashed skeptical forces which, outside of the tightly controlled environment of a rigorous philosophical debate, led a lot of people to throw their hands up in despair and think 'what's the point?'. A lot of the public perception of philosophy is that it leaves you with no answers, and more confused than you were at the beginning.

Don't believe me, don't believe yourself, and don't believe anyone else.

I don't like quintessential certitude.

I believe in not quite knowing. A writer needs to be doubtful, questioning. I write out of curiosity and bewilderment.

It is only doubt that creates.

I was a terrible believer in things,but I was also a terrible nonbeliever in things. I was as searching as I was skeptical. I didn't know where to put my faith,or if there was such a place,or even what the word faith meant, in all of it's complexity. Everything seemed to be possibly potent and possibly fake.

If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief.

My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.

I think maybe it is better to believe than not to believe. But I couldn't tell you why.

Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.

Sometimes I believe...Sometimes I really do believe.