Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes
The combined wisdom and genius of all mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument against liberty of thought.
It cannot be too often repeated, that truth scorns the assistance of miracle.
They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.
I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this.
The meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods, and a palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts.
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.
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.
The moment you introduce a despotism in the world of thought, you succeed in making hypocrites - and you get in such a position that you never know what your neighbor thinks.
Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrines of the weak.
Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.
The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural.
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.
If the reason I give is a good one, you will act upon it. If it is a bad one I cannot make it better by piling epithet upon epithet. There is no logic in abuse; there is no argument in an epithet.
He who refuses to stoop, who cannot be bribed by the promise of success or the fear of failure - who walks the highway of the right, and in disaster stands erect, is the only victor.
There can be goodness without much intelligence - but it seems to me that perfect intelligence and perfect goodness must go together.
Every religion in the world has denounced every other religion as a fraud. That proves to me that they all tell the truth - about others.
I regard the rights of men and women equal. In Love's fair realm, husband and wife are king and queen, sceptered and crowned alike, and seated on the self-same throne.
I do not believe anything comes by chance. I regard the present as the necessary child of a necessary past.
Roscoe Conkling was a man of superb courage. He not only acted without fear, but he had that fortitude of soul which bears the consequences of the course pursued without complaint.
A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy.
Character is made of duty and love and sympathy, and, above all, of living and working for others.
What is it that distinguishes you and me from the lower animals - from the beasts? More, I say, than anything else, human sympathy - human sympathy.
A prayer that must have a cannon behind it better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.
Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty.
