Hitchens @ Jefferson's Old Stomping Grounds...

"To say that Philadelphia in the latter part of the eighteenth century was the equivalent of fifth century Athens would be certainly an exaggeration. But I don’t know of another period of human history, really, except perhaps Paris at the same time, where there were so many great minds assembled in, within such a small compass. And acting and reacting upon one another in revolutionary and enlightening ways. Everybody knows, of course, the Philadelphia of Benjamin Franklin, and the way in which it grew and develops as a center of learning and education, of printing, of medicine."

Hitchens, what about Scotland during that period?

And this is good:

"When I want to make crowds laugh, as you can see, at least I can make them giggle sometimes, I, I also sometimes want to make them cry. And if I want to make a crowd weep and get moist and reach for its hankie, I ask them to consider the candidates in the election from 1796, Jefferson versus Adams, where you had your choice of a candidate who was the chairman of the American Society Of Arts And Letters, and another candidate who was the president of the American Academy Of Sciences (actually American Philosophical Society). Something seems to have gone wrong with our candidate pool. (LAUGH) No, you're supposed to cry, you're supposed to cry."