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Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes - Page 16

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I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm off guesses as

I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm off guesses as demonstrated truths.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Teacher, Teaching, School
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The Works of Robert G.Ingersoll. [Dresden Ed.]”

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
Names, Enemy, Atheism
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.899, Library of Alexandria

Do not trust those in whom the compulsion to punish is strong.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Strong, Compulsion

It is incredible that only idiots are absolutely sure of salvation. It is incredible that the more brain you have the less your chance is. There can be no danger in honest thought, and if the world ever advances beyond what it is to-day, it must be led by men who express their real opinions.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Honesty, Real, Men
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.759, Library of Alexandria

Burns had his faults, his frailties. He was intensely human. Still, I would rather appear at the "Judgment Seat" drunk, and be able to say that I was the author of "A man's a man for 'a that," than to be perfectly sober and admit that I had lived and died a Scotch Presbyterian.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Scotch, Drunk
Robert Green Ingersoll (2004). “Superstition and Other Essays”

Millions of men give all their energies, as well as their very souls, for the acquisition of gold. And this will continue as long as society is ignorant enough and hypocritical enough to hold in high esteem the man of wealth without the slightest regard to the character of the man.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Money, Character, Men
"The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Lectures".

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Love, Queens, Kings
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.525, Library of Alexandria

Some president wishes to be re-elected, and thereupon speaks about the Bible as "the corner-stone of American Liberty." This sentence is a mouth large enough to swallow any church, and from that time forward the religious people will be citing that remark of the politician to substantiate the inspiration of the Scriptures.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Religious, Inspiration, People
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2547, Library of Alexandria

If you have ever clothed another with woe, as with a garment of pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that thing.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Pain, Unity, Done

I hate above all things a cross man. What right has he to murder the sunshine of a day? What right has he to assassinate the Joy of life? When you go home, you ought to go like a ray of light-so that it will, even in the night, burst out of the doors and windows and illuminate the darkness.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Hate, Home, Sunshine
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.206, Library of Alexandria

Religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Religion, World, Phases
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.182, Library of Alexandria

All the professors in all the religious colleges in this country rolled into one, would not equal Charles Darwin.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Country, Religious, College
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1335, Library of Alexandria

I have not the slightest confidence in 'spiritual manifestations.'

Robert Green Ingersoll
Spiritual, Manifestation
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2984, Library of Alexandria

The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf - a philosopher or servant, - but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Wisdom, Kings, Truth
Robert Green Ingersoll (2004). “Superstition and Other Essays”

Justice, poised and balanced in eternal calm, will shake from the golden scales in which are weighed the acts of men, the very dust of prejudice and caste: No race, no color, no previous condition, can change the rights of men.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Rights, Race
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.3053, Library of Alexandria

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
Fall, Ignorance, Foundation
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4160, Library of Alexandria

Many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Thinking, People, Positive Atheism
Liberty of Man, Woman and Child Sect. 3

All prayers die in the air which they uselessly agitate.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Prayer, Air, Religion
Robert Green Ingersoll (1900). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll ...”

One good schoolmaster is worth a thousand priests.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Education, Priests, Good School
Robert Green Ingersoll (1883). “Popular edition of col. Ingersoll's lectures. (Freethought publ. co.'s ed.).”

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
Effort, Atheism, Would Be
Joseph Lewis, Robert Green Ingersoll (1957). “Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage”

They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Atheism, Example, Barbarians
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2212, Library of Alexandria

The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Thinking, Atheism, Machines
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.196, Library of Alexandria

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
Light, Race, Joy
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1791, Library of Alexandria

Ignorance is the worst form of slavery. (Paraphrased)

Robert Green Ingersoll
Ignorance, Slavery, Form

For the first time I understood the dogma of eternal pain... For the first time my imagination grasped the height and depth of the Christian horror. Then I said: "It is a lie, and I hate your religion. If it is true, I hate your God." From that day I have had no fear, no doubt. For me, on that day, the flames of hell were quenched. From that day I have passionately hated every orthodox creed. That Sermon did some good.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Christian, Religious, Pain

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