Some of those that have inspired me include, Christopher Hitchens, W.B. Yeats, John Keats, Oscar Wilde, Bill Hicks, Carl Jung, Fredrick Nietzsche and far too many others to mention.
Other things that make my life worthwhile include butterscotch anything, rainy days, black umbrellas, books, NHL 13, The Smiths, Brand new and french roasts on cold Canadian mornings.
Photoset reblogged from zeros and ones with 1,219 notes
I know that feel bro. That’s why I got on a plane.
Source: cheesekills
Post with 1 note
How do I always manage to put myself in situations that even philosophers would have great difficulty in deciding what one should do?
Photoset reblogged from John Green's tumblr with 69,571 notes
[x]
Stephen fry. Stop it.
You are clearly being too smart. You are not of this Earth.
Source: 3swallows
Chat reblogged from Bent not Broken with 349,850 notes
- Teacher: Why did you not study?
- Me: A year has 365 days for you to study. After taking away 52 Sundays, there are only 313 days left. There are 50 days in the summer that is way too hot to work so there are only 263 days left. We sleep 8 hours a day, in a year, that counts up to 122 days so now we're left with 141 days. If we fooled around for only 1 hour a day, 15 days are gone, so we are left with 126 days. We spend 2 hours eating each day, 30 days are used in this way in the year, and we are left with 96 days in our year. We spend 1 hour a day speaking to friends and family, that takes away 15 days more and we are left with 81 days. Exams and tests take up at least 35 days in your year, hence you are only left with 46 days. Taking off approximately 40 days of holidays, you are only left with 6 days. Say you are sick for a minimum of 3 days, you're left with 3 days in the year to study! Let's say you only go out for 2 days... You're left with 1 day. But that 1 day is your birthday.
Source: famemonsters
Photo reblogged from The Word of a Rose with 95 notes
Literary Birthday - 13 April
Happy Birthday, Christopher Hitchens, born 13 April 1949, died 15 December 2011
13 Quotes from Christopher Hitchens
- I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humour.
- I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.
- I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn’t ever have to rely on the press for my information.
- What is it you most dislike? Stupidity, especially in its nastiest forms of racism and superstition.
- What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
- To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?
- How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.
- The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.
- Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.
- 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.
- I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.
- Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and—since there is no other metaphor—also the soul.
- I wanted to write.
Hitchens was a British-American author and journalist who contributed to The Atlantic, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He was an author of twelve books and five collections of essays. His subject matter included politics, literature, and religion. His works included God Is Not Great and Hitch-22: A Memoir.
Source for Image
by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write
Source: amandaonwriting
Link reblogged from Fuck Yeah Character Development! with 847 notes
MY WRITING JOURNEY →
I found this in my notebook today. It’s not mine, I’ll have read it somewhere and just jotted it down - so if anyone knows the credit, let me know.
For writing Short Stories.
5 KEYS TO AN UNFORGETTABLE INTRODUCTION
- SET THE MOOD
- ESTABLISH THE SETTING (USE IMAGERY, A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS)
- HOOK THE AUDIENCE (PRESENT THE AUDIENCE WITH SOMETHING UNUSUAL)
- INTRODUCE MAIN CHARACTERS
- SHOW US WHAT’S AT STAKE
Source: mywritingjourney
Photo reblogged from The Word of a Rose with 376,952 notes
“Wow Mr. Balloon, we’re going to have so much fun together.” POP “Hey, Mr. Balloon are you okay? Wha- what the, OHMYJESUSSWEETMOTHEROFGOD?!”
I can never not reblog this. ALWAYS AUTO REBLOG.
That’s like the most delayed reaction ever.
HAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA this is the best
Source: theamericankid
Photo reblogged from Vanity Fair with 45 notes
HitchIn an excerpt from his memoir, late contributing editor Christopher Hitchens recalls the first time he met Margaret Thatcher:
Within moments, too, I had turned away and was showing her my buttocks. I suppose that I must give some sort of explanation for this. Almost as soon as we shook hands on immediate introduction, I felt that she knew my name and had perhaps connected it to the socialist weekly that had recently called her rather sexy. While she struggled adorably with this moment of pretty confusion, I felt obliged to seek controversy and picked a fight with her on a detail of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe policy. She took me up on it. I was (as it happened) right on the small point of fact, and she was wrong. But she maintained her wrongness with such adamantine strength that I eventually conceded the point and even bowed slightly to emphasize my acknowledgment. “No,” she said. “Bow lower!” Smiling agreeably, I bent forward a bit farther. “No, no,” she trilled. “Much lower!” By this time, a little group of interested bystanders was gathering. I again bent forward, this time much more self-consciously. Stepping around behind me, she unmasked her batteries and smote me on the rear with the parliamentary order paper that she had been rolling into a cylinder behind her back. I regained the vertical with some awkwardness. As she walked away, she looked over her shoulder and gave an almost imperceptibly slight roll of the hip while mouthing the words “Naughty boy!”
Read more here.
Link reblogged from Relinquish Faith with 2,094 notes
A Pride: Two cents on Richard Dawkin's recent tweets. →
Did you know Richard Dawkins tweets?
- Mr. Dawkins speaks of belief upon evidence, yet, when the onus of providing on evidence fell on him, he failed to do so.
- Dawkins’ justification of his failure to give proof for his sweeping statement is intrinsically flawed; as it could be…
Dawkins is an Islamophobic shithole, and this would be true whether he were an atheist or not. The thing that bothers me is how Dawkins uses his personal, absence-of-religious doctrine to advance bigotry in the same way various religious institutions do in order to bolster their own power and authority. The problem in all cases is not the religion but the presence of shitty human beings, who exist everywhere, in all religions, Dawkins being a prime example if we view militant atheism as its own religion.
I’d been told before that he’s a bit of a dick. Reading his twitter stream confirms this.
This kind of intense, hateful stereotyping gives atheists everywhere a bad name, and that Dawkins has been appointed the leader of a movement through this sort of drivel is proof that there are blind idiots everywhere…it doesn’t matter what they do (or don’t) worship.
Saying “there would be no war without religion” is similar to saying “there would be war without people.” Except that only the second statement is actually true. But neither matter, because they suppose a world which is impossible and cannot exist, y’know, unless we’re talking about genocide…or asteroid impacts.
He’s just intensely (perhaps willfully) ignorant of how individual humans and collective cultures operate.
In the end, Dawkins seems to be mostly concerned not with the betterment of mankind, but with the betterment of Dawkins.
Hank you may have lost a fan in me over this. Your reluctance to actually outright state your opinions on religious matters in an attempt to appeal to a large market with Vlog Brothers has always been somewhat understandable but also, in a way, timid.
http://leaenae434.tumblr.com the person whose post you eventually reblogged stated this, “As a scientist, the word “truth” is an ambiguous one, as truth is relative.”
I can’t believe that you, as someone who values the scientific method so highly can endorse this. Truth is not relative. There are things that are true and things that are not. That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Dawkins was dismissive of one ancient text that provides absolutely no evidence for any scientific cause and a dogmatic, batshit insane view of morality. Why should a modern scientist be concerned about the details of an ancient text? Especially when he has the advantage of viewing it after witnessing thousands of years of bloodshed caused by it?
Dawkins has an incredibly high standard for objectivity in his scientific career. His work has educated thousands of people on the intricacies of evolutionary biology. He has stood up for the rights of human beings, especially those of women and children for decades. While he certainly works for his own betterment I feel it is very clear that as an educator and human rights advocate the majority of his career has been spent helping others. He is a better man than you or I and it bothers me that you dismiss him so thoroughly because he doesn’t appeal to the masses, the same way, (and I’m sorry to say this Hank, because really, I am a fan) you have.
If you want to talk about the way the culture of Islam operates we can’t exactly give them a glowing review. They have a worse human rights record than the Galactic Empire. Say what you will about the barbed way us “militant atheists” respond to religious societies but I have yet to see someone put to death for posting something against atheists on a blog in any part of the world. Women and children are enslaved in radical Islam and young boys are brainwashed to carry on that tradition.
Dawkins is right. Modern fundamentalist Islam is the worlds greatest threat to free society and human rights. I don’t care whose feelings that statement will hurt.
Source: leaenae434
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