There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Equality
Happiness is not a reward—it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment—it is a result.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
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 G. Ingersoll
Topics: Hypocrisy
Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Prayer, One liners
When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death—that is heroism.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Fear, Heroism
Good nature is the cheapest commodity in the world, and love is the only thing that will pay ten percent to both borrower and lender.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Love
What light is to the eyes—what air is to the lungs—what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Liberty
If I had my way I’d make health catching instead of disease.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Health
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Courage, Bravery, Difficulty, Defeat
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Realistic Expectations, Nature, Consequences
Man is a marvelous curiosity … he thinks he is the Creator’s pet … he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes, and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn’t it a quaint idea?
—Robert G. Ingersoll
What has religion to do with facts? Nothing.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
The more liberty you give away the more you will have.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Liberty
He stands erect by bending over the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Aid, Assistance, Help
Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Kindness
From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word, but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion, Hope, Sympathy
Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Tolerance
These heroes are dead. They died for liberty – they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest. Earth may run red with other wars – they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Heroes/Heroism
Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Immortality, Religion
The triumph of justice is the only peace.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Justice
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Hope
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Genius, Anger, Mediocrity
Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Science, Scientists
Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: God
Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
Crimes were committed to punish crimes, and crimes were committed to prevent crimes. The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen and heads-men – and yet these frightful means and instrumentalities have committed far more crimes than they have prevented…. Ignorance, filth, and poverty are the missionaries of crime. As long as dishonorable success outranks honest effort – as long as society bows and cringes before the great thieves, there will be little ones enough to fill the jails.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Justice
Religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish – if a little more enlightened, religion would perish.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Robert F. Kennedy American Politician
- Hugo Black American Attorney
- Earl Warren American Judge, Politician
- Rudy Giuliani American Politician
- Harry Browne American Author, Economist
- Thomas Brackett Reed American Politician
- Horace Greeley American Journalist
- Wendell Willkie American Politician
- Stewart Udall American Politician
- Kurt Vonnegut American Novelist
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