Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) was an American politician and orator. Known as “the great agnostic,” he was a famous critic of the Bible and a proponent of humanistic philosophy and scientific rationalism.
Born in Dresden, New York state, Ingersoll had little formal education. Despite this, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1854, and later enjoyed a law practice in Peoria, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
During the Civil War, Ingersoll served as colonel of a Federal cavalry regiment and, in 1867, became State Attorney-General of Illinois. A successful Republican orator, he was also well known for his agnostic lectures attacking Christian beliefs. His heretical religious opinions dissuaded Republican administrations from appointing him to the Cabinet or to the diplomatic posts that he wanted.
Known all over the country as a speaker, Ingersoll was in great demand and received as much as $3,500 for a single evening’s performance. With brilliant oratory and wit, he sought to expose the orthodox superstitions of the times.
Ingersoll wrote several books, including The Gods, and Other Lectures (1876,) Some Mistakes of Moses (1879,) and Why I Am An Agnostic (1896.) His major lectures and speeches are gathered in The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (12 vols., 1902.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert G. Ingersoll
Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, everyone should be serene, slow-pulsed and calm.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Anger
Don’t you know that if people could bottle the air they would? Don’t you know that there would be an American Air-bottling Association? And don’t you know that they would allow thousands and millions to die for want of breath, if they could not pay for air? I am not blaming anybody. I am just telling how it is.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Property
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
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
Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Science, Scientists
The only person entitled to use the imperial ‘we’ in speaking of himself is a king, an editor, and a man with a tapeworm.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Few rich men own their property; the property owns them.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Property
The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Churches, Religion
The more liberty you give away the more you will have.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Liberty
In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Perspective
An honest God is the noblest work of man.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Business
Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Arguments
The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Every man who expresses an honest thought is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Army, Soldiers
If I had my way I’d make health catching instead of disease.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Health
There is the same difference between talent and genius that there is between a stone mason and a sculptor.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Genius, Talent
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Tolerance
It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions,—some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said, The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church. On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Faith, Courage
If people are not being told the truth about their problems, the majority not only may, but invariably must, make the wrong judgments.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Truth
Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
Happiness is not a reward—it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment—it is a result.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would flourish – if a little more enlightened, religion would perish.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Hope
The triumph of justice is the only peace.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Justice
I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Right, Activism, Rightness
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Defeat, Bravery, Courage, Difficulty
Many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Love
It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Education, Common Sense
My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Joy, Belief, Happiness
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
If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn’t pay Smith.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Forgiveness
Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, misfortune – all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical. What do you do with the criminal? You send him to the penitentiary. Is he made better? Worse. The first thing you do is to try to trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him. You mark him. You put him in stripes. At night you put him in darkness. His feeling for revenge grows. You make a wild beast of him, and he comes out of that place branded in body and soul, and then you won’t let him reform if he wants to.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Justice
Few rich men own their own property. Their property owns them.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Success, Happiness, Money
I would rather be a beggar and spend my money like a king, than be a king and spend money like a beggar.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Money
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
In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called kings.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Hypocrisy
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