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Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes - Page 8

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

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

Robert Green Ingersoll
Religion, Immortal Soul, Doe
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2417, Library of Alexandria

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
Suicide, Should Have, Guilty
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.794, Library of Alexandria

Give any orthodox church the power, and to-day they would punish heresy with whip, and chain, and fire. As long as a church deems a certain belief essential to salvation, just so long it will kill and burn if it has the power.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Fire, Giving, Long
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.119, Library of Alexandria

A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain and revengeful, false in promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, infamous and hideous-such is the God of the Pentateuch.

Robert Green Ingersoll
God, Religious, Hypocrite
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.428, Library of Alexandria

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
Believe, Men, Race
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”

It cannot be said too often that actions are good or bad in the light of consequences, and that a clear perception of consequences would control actions. That which increases the sum of human happiness is moral; and that which diminishes the sum of human happiness is immoral. . . . Blind, unreasoning obedience is the enemy of morality.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Light, Perception, Enemy
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.4445, Library of Alexandria

One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Religion, Denial, Facts
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.929, Library of Alexandria

Reason is the light, the sun of the brain. It is the compass of the mind, the ever-constant Northern Star, the mountain peak that lifts itself above all clouds.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Stars, Clouds, Light
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1089, Library of Alexandria

There are some truths, however, that we should never forget: Superstition has always been the relentless enemy of science; faith has been a hater of demonstration; hypocrisy has been sincere only in its dread of truth, and all religions are inconsistent with mental freedom.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Hypocrisy, Enemy, Superstitions
Robert Green Ingersoll (1898). “Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc. : Complete”

Honesty is the mother of confidence; it unites, combines and solidifies society. Dishonesty is disintegration; it destroys confidence; it brings social chaos. . . .

Robert Green Ingersoll
Mother, Honesty, Chaos
Robert Green Ingersoll, Clinton P. Farrell (1911). “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll”

My heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain... to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Wise, Gratitude, Hero
"The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Lectures".

Fear is religion, courage is science.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.152, Library of Alexandria

Argument cannot be answered with insults. Kindness is strength; anger blows out the lamp of the mind.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Kindness, Blow, Mind
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1588, Library of Alexandria

Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Choices, Matter, Belief

The old man has been long at the fair. He is acquainted with the jugglers at the booths. His curiosity has been satisfied. He no longer cares for the exceptional, the monstrous, the marvelous and deformed. He looks through and beyond the gilding, the glitter and gloss, not only of things, but of conduct, of manners, theories, religions and philosophies. He sees clearer. The light no longer shines in his eyes.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Philosophy, Eye, Men
Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Miscellany”

The Church says the Earth is flat. But I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the Moon. And I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Motivational, Death, Faith

For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said "Think" The many have said "Believe!"

Robert Green Ingersoll
Faith, Religious, War
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.51, Library of Alexandria

Grant others the same rights as you claim for yourself.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Compassion, Rights, Courtesy

Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, than there are leaves in all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in Hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Atheist, Children, Pain
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.216, Library of Alexandria

As a matter of fact, no one knows that God exists and no one knows that God does not exist. To my mind there is no evidence that God exists - that this world is governed by a being of infinite goodness, wisdom and power, but I do not pretend to know.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Mind, Religion, Doe
Robert Green Ingersoll (1905). “Lectures and Essays (a Selection)”

It is with men as with other things. The mullein needs only a year, but the oak a century, and the greatest men are those who have continued to grow as long as they have lived.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Men, Years, Long
Robert Green Ingersoll (1900). “Tributes and miscellany”

I would rather that we all should go to eternal chaos, to black and starless night, than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Night, Agony, Soul
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.291, Library of Alexandria

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
Truth, Errors, Religion
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.774, Library of Alexandria

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
Ignorant, Horizon, Honest
Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.931, Library of Alexandria

I have always noticed that the people who have the smallest souls make the most fuss about getting them saved.

Robert Green Ingersoll
People, Soul, Smallest
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”

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