The Book Recommendation Thread

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Possibly my favourite Hitchens' book is Letters to a Young Contrarian - it's short but doesn't miss a beat:

"The Principle of the Dangerous Precedent is that you should not now do any admittedly right action for fear you, or your equally timid successors, should not have the courage to do right in some future case, which, ex hypothesi, is essentially different, but superficially resembles the present one. Every public action that is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time."

"... tell myself every day that I do not recognise the legitimacy of a government that puts me in this position. I do not grant even my “elected” leaders the power of life and death over myself, let alone over all present, future and indeed past forms of life, all of which they arrogate the right to extirpate at an instant’s notice. Nor was I ever asked if I would grant that power, even supposing for a moment that I had the right to grant it on behalf of others, which I do not for a moment believe that I do."

"That is why so many irritating dissidents have been described by their enemies as “selfappointed.” (Once again, you see, the surreptitious suggestion of elitism and arrogance.) “Self-appointed” suits me fine. Nobody asked me to do this and it would not be the same thing I do if they had asked me. I can’t be fired any more than I can be promoted. I am happy in the ranks of the self-employed. If I am stupid or on poor form, nobody suffers but me."

"People have a need for reassurance and belonging. This contrast sometimes discovers itself under pressure: consider two classically “dissident” and quite celebrated remarks by Albert Camus and E.M. Forster. Faced with an unjust colonial war in his native Algeria, where the insurgents would detonate random bombs that might as easily kill his aged mama as they might an occupying soldier, Camus observed that if compelled to choose between Justice and his mother, he might well have to pick his mother. While Forster said that, given a choice between betraying his country or betraying his friends, he hoped he would be courageous enough to betray his country."

"Anyway, what you swiftly realise if you peek over the wall of your own immediate neighborhood or environment, and travel beyond it, is, first, that we have a huge surplus of people who wouldn’t change anything about the way they were born, or the group they were born into, but second that “humanity” (and the idea of change) is best represented by those who have the wit not to think, or should I say feel, in this way."

"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."

"Up the Ra."