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Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes - Page 19

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If we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of persons and peoples, history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce.

If we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of persons and peoples, history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce.

Robert Green Ingersoll
God, Destiny, Farce
Robert Green Ingersoll (1873). “An Oration on the Gods”, p.33

Every library is an arsenal.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Library, Arsenal
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.175, Library of Alexandria

It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Philosophy, Book, Men
Robert Green Ingersoll (1952). “Life and Letters”

Do the best that can be done and then . . . be resigned.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Life, Done, Resigned
Robert Green Ingersoll (1952). “Life and Letters”

The idea that there is a God who rewards and punishes, and who can reward, if he so wishes, the meanest and vilest of the human race, so that he will be eternally happy, and can punish the best of the human race, so that he will be eternally miserable, is subversive of all morality.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Race, Ideas, Religion
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2699, Library of Alexandria

The undressed is vulgar; the nude is pure, and the well-dressed tainted.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Fashion, Vulgarity Is, Clothes

The Christians say, that among the ancient Jews, if you committed a crime you had to kill a sheep. Now they say 'charge it.' 'Put it on the slate.' The Savior will pay it. In this way, rascality is sold on credit, and the credit system in morals, as in business, breeds extravagance.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Christian, Sheep, Religion

Liberty cannot be sacrificed for the sake of anything.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Liberty, Sake
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.978, Library of Alexandria

One man in the right will finally get to be a majority.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Majority, One Man
Robert Green Ingersoll (1914). “Political speeches of Robert G. Ingersoll”

No man has a right to leave his wife to fight the battle alone if he is able to help. No man has a right to desert his children if he can possibly be of use. As long as he can add to the comfort of those he loves, as long as he can . . . be of any use, it is his duty to remain.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Life, Children, Fighting
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2305, Library of Alexandria

Of course, ministers look upon theaters as rival attractions, and most of their hatred is born of business views. They think people ought to be driven to church by having all other places closed. In my judgment the theater has done good, while the church has done harm. The drama never has insisted upon burning anybody. Persecution is not born of the stage.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Drama, Thinking, Views
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2164, Library of Alexandria

All should be taught that the highest ambition is to be happy, and to add to the well-being of others; that place and power are not necessary to success; that the desire to acquire great wealth is a kind of insanity. They should be taught that it is a waste of energy, a waste of thought, a waste of life, to acquire what you do not need and what you do not really use for the benefit of yourself or others.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Money, Ambition, Insanity
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.978, Library of Alexandria

If upon this earth we ever have a glimpse of heaven,it is when we pass a home in winter, at night,and through the windows, the curtains drawn aside,we see the family about the pleasant hearth; the old lady knitting; the cat playing with the yarn;the children wishing they had as many dolls or dollars or knivesor somethings, as there are sparks going out to join the roaring blast;the father reading and smoking, and the clouds rising like incense from the altar of domestic joy.I never passed such a house without feeling thatI had received a benediction.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Children, Father, Reading
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.220, Library of Alexandria

There is no slavery but ignorance.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Ignorance, Slavery
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.185, Library of Alexandria

Intelligence, guided by kindness, is the highest wisdom. . . .

Robert Green Ingersoll
Kindness, Humanist, Highest
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”

The object of all education should be to increase the usefulness of man - usefulness to himself and others.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Education, Men, Increase
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4081, Library of Alexandria

Intellect, without heart, is infinitely cruel. . . .

Robert Green Ingersoll
Heart, Humanist, Intellect
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2169, Library of Alexandria

Sometime, it will be found that people can be changed only by changing their surroundings. It is alleged that, at least ninety-five percent of the criminals transported from England to Australia and other penal colonies, became good and useful citizens in a new world.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Australia, People, World

Why should we desire the destruction of human passions? Take passions from human beings and what is left? The great object should be not to destroy passions, but to make them obedient to the intellect. To indulge passion to the utmost is one form of intemperance - to destroy passion is another. The reasonable gratification of passion under the domination of the intellect is true wisdom and perfect virtue.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Passion, Perfect, Desire
Robert Green Ingersoll (1993). “Reason, Tolerance, and Christianity: The Ingersoll Debates”

Language is not subtle enough, tender enough, to express all that we feel; and when language fails, the highest and deepest longings are translated into music. Music is the sunshine - the climate - of the soul, and it floods the heart with a perfect June.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Art, Sunshine, June
Robert Green Ingersoll (1952). “Life and Letters”

Hope is the consolation of the world.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Life, World, Consolation
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1061, Library of Alexandria

If there is a God, there should be no slaves.

Robert Green Ingersoll
If There Is A God, Slave, Should
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.200, Library of Alexandria

I love to think of the whole universe together as one eternal fact. I love to think that everything is alive; that crystallization is itself a step toward joy. I love to think that when a bud bursts into blossom: it feels a thrill. I love to have the universe full of feeling and full of joy, and not full of simple dead, inert matter, managed by an old bachelor for all eternity.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Simple, Thinking, Joy
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2363, Library of Alexandria

To destroy guide-boards that point in the wrong direction . . . to drive the fiend of fear from the mind . . . is the task of the Freethinker.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Mind, Tasks, Boards
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4285, Library of Alexandria

Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Art, Affection, Born
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”

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