As a new contributor to this blog, I’ve yet to introduce myself properly. But instead of writing about my life story in a rambling sort of way, I thought I’d instead present to you my favourite quotes. They cover a range of topics, from religion, to philosophy, to poverty and even love. I hope they also show you my personality and even my sense of humour. Enjoy!

“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.” Thomas Paine

“No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavour to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.” Jeremy Bentham

“Death, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that when we are, death is not, and when death is, we are not.” Epicurus. (I had to include this one given the nature of the blog…)

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse.” John Stuart Mill

“Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writings of younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States. Moreover they do not as a rule condemn violence as such, but only violence used in defence of western countries.” George Orwell

“The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of common man.” William Bevridge

“A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong” Socrates

“Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.” Saint Augustine

“MT [Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.” Christopher Hitchens

“The Bolsheviks killed their own most loyal supporters at Kronstadt in 1921, because they failed to understand that the revolution no longer required revolutionaries, but obedient servants.” Peter Hitchens

“What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don’t want to study the social sciences, because it’s not profitable, and now Newt, as the highest-paid historian in American history, may be an encouragement to people to study history.” Barney Frank

“I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!” Harry S. Truman

“It’s weird: The leader of the Conservative Party in England is two years younger than me, and I still don’t really feel like a responsible adult.” Jarvis Cocker (referring to David Cameron)

“To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.” Douglas Adams

“When you want to make it clear to the rest of the world that you are not an imperialist, the best countries to have with you are Britain and Spain.” Bill Maher

“I entered the health care debate in response to a statement in the United States press in summer 2009 which claimed the National Health Service in Great Britain would have killed me off, were I a British citizen. I felt compelled to make a statement to explain the error.” Stephen Hawking

“I think that people have to reward those individuals who are prepared to work across the political aisle. I don’t see any other way; if you don’t talk to people with whom you disagree, you’re never going to solve problems.” Angus King

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Noam Chomsky

“Both [the right and the left] suspect the white poor. The right regard them as scroungers, who steal the money of the middle classes, either by breaking into their homes or by taking their taxes in benefit cheques. The left regard them as sexist and racist homophobes.” Nick Cohen

“Children who are treated as if they are uneducable, almost invariably become uneducable.” Kenneth Clark

“I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don’t let it bother me. I don’t let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.” P.J. O’Rourke

“Why do people say “grow some balls”? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” Sheng Wang

“Women are there to be loved, not to be understood.” Oscar Wilde

“It would be embarrassing to get married again. It’s something we’ve never talked about. Anyway, we’ve got our gay friends, they are all getting married, people like Elton (Elton John). They have taken the load off all us heterosexuals living in sin.” Janet Street Porter

“There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats.” Elton John