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Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes - Page 20

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The ideas of right and wrong change with the experience of the race, and this change is wrought by the gradual ascertaining of consequences - of results.

The ideas of right and wrong change with the experience of the race, and this change is wrought by the gradual ascertaining of consequences - of results.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Race, Ideas, Morality
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4445, Library of Alexandria

Everyone should be taught the nobility of labor, the heroism and splendor of honest effort. As long as it is considered disgraceful to labor, or aristocratic not to labor, the world will be filled with idleness and crime, and with every possible moral deformity.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Work, Long, Effort
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2807, Library of Alexandria

It is labor that has made the world a fit habitation for the human race.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Work, Race, World
Robert Green Ingersoll (1908). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Miscellany”

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
Money, Kings, Sunshine
Robert Green Ingersoll (1902). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Miscellany”

The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Intellectual, Progress, Infidel
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.759, Library of Alexandria

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 Green Ingersoll
Attention, May, Stones
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.770, Library of Alexandria

Nothing is greater than to break the chains from the bodies of men, nothing nobler than to destroy the phantom of the soul.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Soul, Atheism
"Ingersoll the Magnificent". Book by Joseph L. Lewis, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1957.

I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the star-less night, - blown and flared by passion's storm, - and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Stars, Passion, Night
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1721, Library of Alexandria

Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrines of the weak.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Powerful, Believe, Names
Robert Green Ingersoll “Heretics and Heresies: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'”, Library of Alexandria

In the presence of death I affirm and reaffirm the truth of all that I have said against the superstitions of the world. I would say that much on the subject with my last breath.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Atheism, World, Superstitions
Robert Green Ingersoll, Herman Eugene Kittredge (1909). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll”

Liberty sustains the same relation to mind that space does to matter.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Space, Mind, Liberty
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.5, Library of Alexandria

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
Money, Kings, Beggar
Robert Green Ingersoll (1898). “Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Letters on the Chinese God--Is Suicide a Sin?--The Right to One's Life--etc. Etc. Etc”

There may or may not be a Supreme Ruler of the universe-but we are certain that man exists, and we believe that freedom is the condition of progress; that it is the sunshine of the mental and moral world, and that without it man will go back to the den of savagery, and wll become the fit associate of wild and ferocious beasts.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Believe, Sunshine, Men
Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Miscellany”

By physical liberty I mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think and the right to think wrong.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Mean, Thinking, Intellectual
Robert Green Ingersoll (1895). “The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child”

Death is only perfect rest.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Death, Perfect

Christianity has made more lunatics than it ever provided asylums for.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Asylums, Christianity, Made
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1309, Library of Alexandria

Intellect, without heart, is infinitely cruel. . . . So that, after all, the real aristocracy must be that of goodness where the intellect is directed by the heart.

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

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 Green Ingersoll
Self, Way, Should
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.3998, Library of Alexandria

He (Thomas Paine) saw oppression on every hand; injustice everywhere; hypocrisy at the altar; venality on the bench, tyranny on the throne; and with a splendid courage he espoused the cause of the weak against the strong

Robert Green Ingersoll
Strong, Hands, Hypocrisy
Robert Green Ingersoll (1874). “An Oration on the Life and Services of Thomas Paine”, p.122

We are all children of the same mother, and the same fate awaits us all. We, too, have our religion, and it is this: Help for the living-Hope for the dead.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Mother, Children, Fate
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4678, Library of Alexandria

The combined wisdom and genius of all mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument against liberty of thought.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Independence, Liberty, Genius
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.83, Library of Alexandria

At thirty most men have prejudices rather than opinions-that is to say, rather than judgments-and few men have lived to be sixty without materially modifying the opinions they held at thirty.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Growth, Prejudice

I believe in the gospel of cheerfulness, the gospel of Good Nature; the gospel of Good Health. Let us pay some attention to our bodies. Take care of our bodies, and our souls will take care of themselves.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Believe, Soul, Attention
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.287, Library of Alexandria

He who treats his friends and enemies alike, has neither love nor justice.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Justice, Enemy, Treats
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1610, Library of Alexandria

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

Robert Green Ingersoll
God, Men, Religion
'The Gods' (1876) pt. 1, p. 2.

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