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, Sympathy, Hope
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Realistic Expectations, Nature, Consequences
Religion is one of the phases of thought through which the world is passing
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
What has religion to do with facts? Nothing.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
Every man who expresses an honest thought is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Army, Soldiers
Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
If I had my way I’d make health catching instead of disease.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Health
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
The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Tolerance
The triumph of justice is the only peace.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Justice
Happiness is not a reward—it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment—it is a result.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn’t pay Smith.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Forgiveness
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
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
Reason, Observation, and Experience—the Holy Trinity of Science.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Observation
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Anger, Genius, Mediocrity
He knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Fear
I belong to the Great Church which holds the world within its starlit aisles; that claims the great and good of every race and clime; that finds with joy the grain of gold in every creed, and floods with light and love the germs of good in every soul.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called kings.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Hypocrisy
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
The destroyer of weeds, thistles and thorns is a benefactor, whether he soweth grain or not.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Helping, Consistency
Many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Religion
An honest God is the noblest work of man.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depth; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought…
—Robert G. Ingersoll
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
He stands erect by bending over the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Help, Assistance, Aid
Civilization has gotten further and further from the so-called ‘natural’ man, who uses all his faculties: perception, invention, improvisation.
—Robert G. Ingersoll
Topics: Civilization
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
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
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- Earl Warren American Judge
- Rudy Giuliani American Politician
- William Bennett American Politician
- Harry Browne American Politician
- Thomas Brackett Reed American Politician
- Horace Greeley American Journalist
- George Madison Adams American Politician
- Wendell Willkie American Politician
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