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I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous -- if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Ghosts and Other Lectures
When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Why I Am An Agnostic
With their backs to the sunrise they worship the night.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Gods and Other Lectures
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. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine -- with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "Why I Am an Agnostic", The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
Great virtues may draw attention from defects, they cannot sanctify them. A pebble surrounded by diamonds remains a common stone, and a diamond surrounded by pebbles is still a gem.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Great Infidels
If there is one subject in this world worthy of being discussed, worthy of being understood, it is the question of intellectual liberty. Without that, we are simply painted clay.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, speech at the trial of C. B. Reynolds for blasphemy, May 1887
Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Philosophy of Ingersoll
With their backs to the sunrise they worship the night.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "Individuality", On the Gods and Other Essays
Take theology from the world, and the money wasted on superstition will do away with want.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
Temptations are as thick as the leaves of the forest, and no one can be out of the reach of temptation unless he is dead. The great thing is to make people intelligent enough and strong enough, not to keep away from temptation, but to resist it.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "How to Reform Mankind," Works
I want more thought and less fear, more manhood and less superstition.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish -- if a little more enlightened, religion would perish.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
Wait until the world is free before you write a creed. In this creed there will be but one word -- Liberty.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
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.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
When all men give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world will be civilized.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
The laboring people should unite and should protect themselves against all idlers. You can divide mankind into two classes: the laborers and the idlers, the supporters and the supported, the honest and the dishonest. Every man is dishonest who lives upon the unpaid labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne. All laborers should be brothers.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, "About Farming in Illinois", The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
If superstition is driven from the mind ... all must be the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, On the Gods and Other Essays
Liberty cannot be sacrificed for the sake of temperance, for the sake of morality, or for the sake of anything. It is of more value than everything. Yet some people would destroy the sun to prevent the growth of weeds. Liberty sustains the same relation to all the virtues that the sun does to life.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "How to Reform Mankind," Works
To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the creeds.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Discussions
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
Mankind will be enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have his thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon all these questions differ, and yet grasp each other's hands as friends.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
I wish to substitute humanity for superstition, the love of our fellow men, for the fear of God.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
Arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; there is no logic in slander, and falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
Religion was the lullaby of the cradle, the ghost-story told by the old woman, Superstition.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage
Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, the trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy, 1887
Superstition, the mother of those hideous twins, fear and faith, from her throne of skulls, still rules the world.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "Individuality", The Gods and Other Lectures
It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good, and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "Which Way?"
Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers; it is the only prayer that deserves an answer -- good, honest, noble work.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, appeal to the jury in the trial of C. B. Reynolds for blasphemy, May 1887
Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, Political Speeches of Robert G. Ingersoll
Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, attributed, Be Reasonable: Selected Quotations for Inquiring Minds
There is but one blasphemy, and that is injustice.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, lecture, Chicago, September 20, 1880
If I had my way, I'd make health catching instead of disease.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
It has been said that a man of genius should select his ancestors with great care--and yet there does not seem to be as much in heredity as most people think. The children of the great are often small.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Lectures and Essays
In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous. A great soul appears and fills the world with new and marvelous harmonies. In his words is the old Promethean flame. The heart of nature beats and throbs in his line. The respectable prudes and pedagogues sound the alarm.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Liberty in Literature
Is it possible that God permitted the violets of modesty, that grow and shed their perfume in the maiden's heart, to be trampled beneath the brutal feet of lust? If this was the order of God, what, under the same circumstances, would have been the command of a devil?
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL, Some Mistakes of Moses
Take the word Liberty from human speech and all the other words become poor, withered, meaningless sounds -- but with that word realized -- with that word understood, the world becomes a paradise.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, speech at the trial of C. B. Reynolds for blasphemy, May 1887
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