Quotes By Robert Green Ingersoll

It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.

There is no slavery but ignorance.

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

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.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot.

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

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.

The more liberty you give away the more you will have.