Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Robert Green Ingersoll More Quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll More Quotes From Robert Green Ingersoll As a man develops, he places a greater value upon his own rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values his own rights he begins to value the rights of others. And when all men give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world will be civilized. Robert Green Ingersoll rightsgivingmen To know that the Bible is the literature of a barbarous people, to know that it is uninspired, to be certain that the supernatural does not and cannot exist - all this is but the beginning of wisdom. Robert Green Ingersoll literaturedoepeople 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 ignoranthorizonhonest He loves his country best who strives to make it best. Robert Green Ingersoll patriotic4th-of-julycountry Do not tell me that you have got to be rich! We have a false standard of greatness in the United States. We think here that a man must be great, that he must be notorious; that he must be extremely wealthy, or that his name must be upon the putrid lips of rumor. It is all a mistake. It is not necessary to be rich or to be great, or to be powerful, to be happy. The happy man is the successful man. Happiness is the legal tender of the soul.Joy is wealth. Robert Green Ingersoll powerfulsuccessfulmistake And what is the great thing that the stage does? It cultivates the imagination. And . . . the imagination constitutes the great difference between human beings. . . . The imagination is the mother of pity, the mother of generosity, the mother of every possible virtue. It is by the imagination that you are enabled to put yourself in the place of another. Robert Green Ingersoll differencesmotherlife When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children; do you know that? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies. Robert Green Ingersoll kindnessfatherchildren My principal objections to orthodox religion are two: slavery here and hell hereafter. Robert Green Ingersoll slaverytworeligion If we are immortal it is a fact in nature, and we are not indebted to priests for it, nor to bibles for it, and it cannot be destroyed by unbelief. Robert Green Ingersoll priestsnaturefacts Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope. Robert Green Ingersoll immortal-souldoereligion If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to create. Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever happened. What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity? Robert Green Ingersoll infinite-intelligencerememberthinking 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 religiousfaithwar Every human being should be taught that his first duty is to take care of himself, and that to be self-respecting he must be self-supporting. To live on the labor of others, either by force which enslaves, or by cunning which robs, or by borrowing or begging, is wholly dishonorable. Every man should be taught some useful art. Robert Green Ingersoll workmenart Let every man teach his son, teach his daughter, that labor is honorable. Robert Green Ingersoll daughtermenson Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction. Robert Green Ingersoll choicesbeliefmatter If priests had not been fond of mutton, lambs never would have been sacrified to god. Nothing was ever carried to the temple that the priest could not use, and it always happened that god wanted what his agents liked. Robert Green Ingersoll agentslambsuse I am not so much for the freedom of religion as I am for the religion of freedom. Robert Green Ingersoll freedom-of-religion To me, the most obscene word in our language is celibacy. Robert Green Ingersoll obscenecelibacylanguage 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 teachingteacherschool Religion supports nobody. It has to be supported. It produces no wheat, no corn; it ploughs no land; it fells no forests. It is a perpetual mendicant. It lives on the labors of others, and then has the arrogance to pretend that it supports the giver. Robert Green Ingersoll supportarroganceland
