Robert Green Ingersoll
Robert Green Ingersoll
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersollwas an American lawyer, a Civil War veteran, political leader, and orator of the United States during the Golden Age of Free Thought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionLawyer
Date of Birth11 August 1833
CountryUnited States of America
ignorance eden giving
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!
men mind doctrine
Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man.
orthodoxy coffins cradle
Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy a coffin.
religious atheist if-there-is-a-god
Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains.
atheist baptism religion
With soap, baptism is a good thing.
ambition soul eternity
It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey.
stars wind sea
As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the high seas. I wish to take my chances with wind, and wave, and star. And I had rather go down in the glory and grandeur of the storm, than rot in any orthodox harbor.
religious heaven cost
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.
holiness eras world
In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
old-habits bones beats
It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.
ignorance slavery
There is no slavery but ignorance.
eye men bending
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.
logic argument insolence
Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice.
courage integrity beast
Courage without conscience is a wild beast.