Ingersoll Quotes

Most men are followers, and implicitly rely upon the judgment of others. They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and regard a grave countenance as the title page and Preface to a most learned volume. So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. And when the teaching of parents, the customs of neighbors, and the general tongue approve and justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, it is hard even for the strongest to hold the citadel of his soul. In each country, in defence of each religion, the same arguments would be urged. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

They knew that it was necessary to believe these things and to love God. They knew that there could be no salvation except by faith, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Liberty cannot be sacrificed for the sake of anything. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

We have at last ascertained that miracles can be perfectly understood; that there is nothing mysterious about them; that they are simply transparent falsehoods. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Christianity has such a contemptible opinion of human nature that it does not believe a man can tell the truth unless frightened by a belief in god. No lower opinion of the human race has ever been expressed. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy - making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Even in the business of corporations honesty is the best policy, and the companies that have acted in accordance with the highest standard, other things being equal, have reaped the richest harvest. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases, and pollutes even the vilest soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in the universe, no good being can be perfectly happy. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Diderot took the ground that, if orthodox religion be true Christ was guilty of suicide. Having the power to defend himself he should have used it. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Ignorance is the worst form of slavery. (Paraphrased) ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Courage without conscience is a wild beast. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

All the men of wealth should remember that everybody in a community has got, in some way, to be supported. I want to see them so that they can support themselves by their own labor. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Too much doubt is better than too much credulity. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The ministers, who preached at these revivals, were in earnest. They were zealous and sincere. They were not philosophers. To them science was the name of a vague dread - a dangerous enemy. They did not know much, but they believed a great deal. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

If the money is raised by taxation, then the burden will fall where it ought to fall, ... and the rich and stingy will no longer be able to evade the duties of citizenship and of humanity. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I would rather be a beggar and spend my money like a king, than be a king and spend money like a beggar. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I am simply in favor of intellectual hospitality-that is all. You come to me with a new idea. I invite you into the house. Let us see what you have. Let us talk it over. If I do not like your thought, I will bid it a polite "good day." If I do like it, I will say: "Sit down; stay with me, and become a part of the intellectual wealth of my world." ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I belong to the Great Church which holds the world within its starlit aisles; that claims the great and good of every race and clime; that finds with joy the grain of gold in every creed, and floods with light and love the germs of good in every soul. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

According to Rushdoony, the conditions of the Irish transport were as bad or worse than what we know of slave ships, and the condition of Irish immigrants on arrival was "far worse than that of slaves: ~ Julie Ingersoll

Religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Perjury is the basest and meanest and most cowardly of crimes. What can it do? Perjury can change the common air that we breathe into the axe of an executioner. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

But those who are incapable of
pitying animals are, as a matter of fact, incapable of pitying men.
A physician who would cut a living rabbit in pieces
laying bare
the nerves, denuding them with knives, pulling them out with
forceps
would not hesitate to try experiments with men and women
for the gratification of his curiosity. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Call me infidel, call me atheist, call me what you will, I intend so to treat my children, that they can come to my grave and truthfully say: 'He who sleeps here never gave us a moment of pain. From his lips, now dust, never came to us an unkind word. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

In my judgment, the Deists were all successfully answered. The god of nature is certainly as bad as the God of the Old Testament. It is only when we discard the idea of a deity, the idea of cruelty or goodness in nature, that we are able ever to bear with patience the ills of life. I feel that I am neither a favorite nor a victim. Nature neither loves nor hates me. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

All the martyrs in the history of the world are not sufficient to establish the correctness of an opinion. Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, - never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom. An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, east a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

I admit that books were voted in and out, and that the Bible was finally formed in accordance with a vote. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach, where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the sea. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Walt Whitman defended the sacredness of love, the purity of passion - the passion that builds every home and fills the world with art and song. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Commerce is the great civilizer. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The religionist is a living fossil, embedded in that rock called faith. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Grant others the same rights as you claim for yourself. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The government, in my judgment, cannot create money; the government can give its note, like an individual, and the prospect of its being paid determines its value. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

America doesn't know today how proud she ought to be of her Ingersoll. ~ Walt Whitman

As we become civilized we are governed less by persons and more by principles ... The best of all leaders is the man who teaches people to lead themselves. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

If matter cannot be destroyed, cannot be annihilated, it could not have been created. The indestructible must be uncreatable. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the high seas. I wish to take my chances with wind, and wave, and star. And I had rather go down in the glory and grandeur of the storm, than rot in any orthodox harbor. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

The doctrine of eternal punishment is in perfect harmony with the savagery of the men who made the orthodox creeds. It is in harmony with torture, with flaying alive, and with burnings. The men who burned their fellow-men for a moment, believed that God would burn his enemies forever. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

There is no common sense in going to the field to fight and leaving a man at home to undo all that you accomplish. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Only the very ignorant are perfectly satisfied that they know. To the common man the great problems are easy. He has no trouble in accounting for the universe. He can tell you the origin and destiny of man and the why and wherefore of things. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

TO PLOW IS TO PRAY; TO PLANT IS TO PROPHESY,
AND THE HARVEST ANSWERS AND FULFILLS. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

If all the historic books of the Bible were blotted from the memory of mankind, nothing of value would be lost.. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

It will probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave. 1879 ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I have not the slightest confidence in 'spiritual manifestations.' ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Commerce makes friends, religion makes enemies; the one enriches, and the other impoverishes; the one thrives best where the truth is told, the other where falsehoods are believed. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The moment you introduce a despotism in the world of thought, you succeed in making hypocrites - and you get in such a position that you never know what your neighbor thinks. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Ingersoll is with Homer and Tully and Shakespeare and Burns. ~ William Stewart Ross

Love your friends and be just to your enemies. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Theology is a superstition - Humanity a religion. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention - of barbarian invention - is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition - then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Age after age, the strong have trampled upon the weak; the crafty and heartless have ensnared and enslaved the simple and innocent, and nowhere, in all the annals of mankind, has any god succored the oppressed ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Shakespeare has done far more for the world than the Bible. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

He [The Improved Man] will enjoy not only the sunshine of life, but will bear with fortitude the darkest days. He will have no fear of death. About the grave, there will be no terrors, and his life will end as serenely as the sun rises. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Most people are Democrats because they hate something; most people are Republicans because they love something. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the street but also to protect the public from harmful ideas. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Years should not be devoted to the acquisition of dead languages or to the study of history which, for the most part, is a detailed account of things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the individual with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history, the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above all, of the sciences. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Science built the Academy, superstition the Inquisition. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

As long as men did nothing except to render their fellows wretched; as long as they only butchered and burnt the innocent and helpless, God maintained the strictest and most heartless neutrality. But when some honest man, some great and tender soul expressed a doubt as to the truth of the Scriptures, or prayed to the wrong God, or to the right one by the wrong name, then the real God leaped like a wounded tiger upon his victim, and from his quivering flesh tore his wretched soul. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Our fathers knew that the flag was never intended to protect any man who wanted to assail it. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I swear that while I live I will do what little I can to preserve and to augment the liberties of man, woman, and child.
It is a question of justice, of mercy, of honesty, of intellectual development. If there is a man in the world who is not willing to give to every human being every right he claims for himself, he is just so much nearer a barbarian than I am. It is a question of honesty. The man who is not willing to give to every other the same intellectual rights he claims for himself, is dishonest, selfish, and brutal. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Now the struggle for life is so sharp, competition is so severe, that few men can succeed who carry a useless burden. The businessmen of our country are compelled to lead temperate lives, otherwise their credit is gone. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

And yet this same Deity says to me, resist not evil; pray for those that despitefully use you; love your enemies, but I will eternally damn mine. It seems to me that even gods should practice what they preach. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better. Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion any more than in politics, science or art. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Fear paints pictures of ghosts and hangs them in the gallery of ignorance. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

How poor this world would be without its graves, without the memories of its mighty dead. Only the voiceless speak forever. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

They say: Belief is important. I say: No, actions are important. Judge by deed, not by creed. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

All religion is slavery. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The walls of that grand edifice called a good character have to be worked at during life. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I believe that there is something far nobler than loyalty to any particular man. Loyalty to the truth as we perceive it - loyalty to our duty as we know it - loyalty to the ideals of our brain and heart - is, to my mind, far greater and far nobler than loyalty to the life of any particular man or God ... ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

[T]he blossom of benevolence, of charity, is the fairest flower, no matter whether it blooms by the side of a hovel, or bursts from a vine climbing the marble pillar of a palace. I respect no man because he is rich; I hold in contempt no man because he is poor. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

At first Christ was a man – nothing more. Mary was his mother, Joseph his father. The genealogy of his father, Joseph, was given to show that he was of the blood of David.
Then the claim was made that he was the son of God, and that his mother was a virgin, and that she remained a virgin until her death.

The claim was made that Christ rose from the dead and ascended bodily to heaven.
It required many years for these absurdities to take possession of the minds of men.
If he really ascended, why did he not do so in public, in the presence of his persecutors? Why should this, the greatest of miracles, be done in secret, in a corner?

Is Christ our example? He never said a word in favor of education. He never even hinted at the existence of any science. He never uttered a word in favor of industry, economy or of any effort to better our condition in this world. He was the enemy of the successful, of the wealthy. Dives was sent to hell, not because he was bad, but because he was rich.

Lazarus went to heaven, not because he was good, but because he was poor.
Christ cared nothing for painting, for sculpture, for music – nothing for any art. He said nothing about the duties of nation to nation, of king to subject; nothing about the rights of man; nothing about intellectual liberty or the freedom of speech. He said nothing about the sacredness of home; not one word for the fireside; not a word in favor of marriage, in honor of matern ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

Is not the history of real civilization the slow and gradual emancipation of the intellect, of the judgment, from the mastery of passion? Is not that man civilized whose reason sits the crowned monarch of his brain - whose passions are his servants? ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

My objection to Christianity is that it is infinitely cruel, infinitely selfish, and, I might add, infinitely absurd. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Today the intelligence of the world denies the miraculous. Ignorance is the soil of the supernatural. The foundation of Christianity has crumbled, has disappeared, and the entire fabric must fall. The natural is true. The miraculous is false. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

For the most part, we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Science has nothing in common with religion. Facts and miracles never did and never will agree. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Nothing has been left undone by the enemies of freedom. Every art and artifice, every cruelty and outrage has been practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of man. In this great struggle, every crime has been rewarded and every virtue has been punished. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The agnostic does not simply say, "l do not know." He goes another step, and he says, with great emphasis, that you do not know. He insists that you are trading on the ignorance of others, and on the fear of others. He is not satisfied with saying that you do not know,
he demonstrates that you do not know, and he drives you from the field of fact
he drives you from the realm of reason
he drives you from the light, into the darkness of conjecture
into the world of dreams and shadows, and he compels you to say, at last, that your faith has no foundation in fact. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

I have had some trouble in regarding evil as having been intended by infinite Goodness. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Nothing discloses character like the use of power. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country, and the maligners of his honor. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The triumph of justice is the only peace. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

We all know that men in moderate circumstances can have just as comfortable houses as the richest, just as comfortable clothing, just as good food. They can see just as fine paintings, just as marvelous statues, and they can hear just as good music. They can attend the same theaters and the same operas. They can enjoy the same sunshine, and above all, can love and be loved just as well as kings and millionaires. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

If, with all the time at my disposal, with all the wealth of the resources of this vast universe, to do with as I will, I could not produce a better scheme of life than now prevails, I would be ashamed of my efforts and consider my work a humiliating failure. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

What has religion to do with facts? Nothing. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Why," they say to me, "suppose all this should turn out to be true, and you should come to the day of judgment and find all these things to be true. What would you do then?" I would walk up like a man, and say, "I was mistaken." "And suppose God was about to pass judgment upon you, what would you say?" I would say to him, "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." Why not? I am told that I must render good for evil. I am told that if smitten on one cheek I must turn the other. I am told that I must overcome evil with good. I am told that I must love my enemies; and will it do for this God who tells me to love my enemies to damn his? No, it will not do. It will not do. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll