It seems to me that if there is some infinite being who wants us to think alike he would have made us alike. Robert Green Ingersoll More Quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll More Quotes From Robert Green Ingersoll The object of all education should be to increase the usefulness of man - usefulness to himself and others. Robert Green Ingersoll increaseeducationmen Many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia. Robert Green Ingersoll positive-atheismpeoplethinking Jehovah was not a moral god. He had all the vices and he lacked all the virtues. He generally carried out all his threats, but he never faithfully kept a promise. Robert Green Ingersoll jehovahvicespromise When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, force is infamous. Robert Green Ingersoll unnecessaryinfamousfacts Wait until the world is free before you write a creed. In this creed there will be but one word -- Liberty. Robert Green Ingersoll libertywaitingwriting No God can put a man in hell in another world, who has made a little heaven in this. God cannot make a man miserable if that man has made somebody else happy. Robert Green Ingersoll menheavenworld 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 fatemotherchildren The doctrine of eternal punishment is in perfect harmony with the savagery of the men who made the orthodox creeds. It is in harmony with torture, with flaying alive, and with burnings. Robert Green Ingersoll doctrineperfectmen Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants the worst is a slave in power. Robert Green Ingersoll tyrantsmenbelieve Character survives; goodness lives; love is immortal. Robert Green Ingersoll love-lifelove-ischaracter The Old Testament filled this world with tyranny and injustice, and the New gives us a future filled with pain for nearly all of the sons of men. The Old Testament describes the hell of the past, and the New the hell of the future. Robert Green Ingersoll painpastson Liberty sustains the same relation to mind that space does to matter. Robert Green Ingersoll libertyspacemind There is only one way to be happy, and that is to make somebody else so, and you cannot be happy by going cross lots; you have got to go the regular turnpike road. Robert Green Ingersoll one-waycrossesway 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 stonesmayattention 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 guiltysuicideshould-have Commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics. Robert Green Ingersoll fabricinspirationalideas I would not for my life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the dimpled darling, she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell. Robert Green Ingersoll ninety-ninestarsbelieve The destroyer of weeds, thistles, and thorns is a benefactor whether he soweth grain or not. Robert Green Ingersoll making-a-differencethornsweed There is something tenderly appropriate in the serene death of the old. Nothing is more touching than the death of the young, the strong. Robert Green Ingersoll twilightmemoriesfall Every church that has a standard higher than human welfare is dangerous. Robert Green Ingersoll atheismchurchreligion
