Robert Green Ingersoll: In all ages the people have honored those who...

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

Robert Green Ingersoll

positive inspirational sports

It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.

Robert Green Ingersoll

christian country book

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Robert Green Ingersoll

reform atheism religion

Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.

Robert Green Ingersoll

forever enemy religion

The Emperor Constantine, who lifted Christianity into power, murdered his wife Fausta, and his eldest son Crispus, the same year that he convened the Council of Nice to decide whether Jesus Christ was a man or the Son of God. The council decided that Christ was consubstantial with the father. This was in the year 325. We are thus indebted to a wife-murderer for settling the vexed question of the divinity of the Savior.

Robert Green Ingersoll

nice father jesus

Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth - each of the other.

Robert Green Ingersoll

atheism world religion

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

Robert Green Ingersoll

depression happiness inspirational

The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.

Robert Green Ingersoll

atheist hands religion

We rise by lifting others.

Robert Green Ingersoll

public-service society helping-others

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Robert Green Ingersoll

motivational happiness inspirational

The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.

Robert Green Ingersoll

revenge heart men

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention - of barbarian invention - is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition - then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity.

Robert Green Ingersoll

eye heart book

While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. This creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed.

Robert Green Ingersoll

strong long world

The church teaches us that we can make God happy by being miserable ourselves.

Robert Green Ingersoll

teach miserable church

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.

Robert Green Ingersoll

doubt mind men

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

Robert Green Ingersoll

tyrants freedom men

As long as a man lives he should study. Death alone has the right to dismiss the school.

Robert Green Ingersoll

education men school

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

Robert Green Ingersoll

nature hope inspirational

Instead of loving a God, we love each other. Instead of the religion of the sky-the religion of this world-the religion of the family-the love of husband for wife, of wife for husband-the love of all for children. So that now the real religion is: Let us live for each other; let us live for this world without regard for the past and without fear for the future. Let us use our faculties and our powers for the benefit of ourselves and others, knowing that if there be another world, the same philosophy that gives us joy here will make us happy there.

Robert Green Ingersoll

husband love children

The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

Robert Green Ingersoll

intellectual men religion

In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.