Quotes By Robert Green Ingersoll

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

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

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.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Few rich men own their property; their property owns them.

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

Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice.

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

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

There is no slavery but ignorance.

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.

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.

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.

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

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.