Benito Mussolini had barely seized power in Italy before the Vatican made an official treaty with him. . … - Christopher Hitchens

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I don't know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions, but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic, so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly, it would be a kind of defence.

Christopher Hitchens

Benito Mussolini had barely seized power in Italy before the Vatican made an official treaty with him. . . . Catholicism became the only recognized religion in Italy. . . and in return urged its followers to vote for Mussolini's party. Pope Pius XI described [Mussolini] as 'a man sent by providence. '. . . Across southern Europe, the church was a reliable ally in the instatement of fascist regimes. . . .

Described, Europe, Men, Party, Return

Same Author Quotes

In the ordinary moral universe, the good will do the best they can, the worst will do the worst they can, but if you want to make good people do wicked things, you’ll need religion.

People, Religion, Universe, Wicked, Youll

I have no time to waste on this planet being told what to do by those who think that God has given them instructions.

Instruction, Planet, Thinking, Time, Told, Waste

Many writers, especially male ones, have told us that it is the decease of the father which opens the prospect of one's own end, and affords an unobstructed view of the undug but awaiting grave that says 'you're next. ' Unfilial as this may seem, that was not at all so in my own case. It was only when I watched Alexander [my own son] being born that I knew at once that my own funeral director had very suddenly, but quite unmistakably, stepped onto the stage. I was surprised by how calmly I took this, but also by how reluctant I was to mention it to my male contemporaries.

Awaiting, Father, Funeral, Son, Views

One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human pre-history where nobody - not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms - had the smallest idea what was going on.

Atoms, Concluded, Idea, Ideas, Infancy Is, Nobody

We have no proof that Socrates ever existed. We only know from witnesses to his life that he did. Like Jesus, he never wrote anything down. It doesn't matter to me whether he did or not exist because we have his teachings, his method of thinking, and his extreme intellectual and moral courage.

Exist, Jesus, Matter, Teaching, Thinking