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
religious pain ignorance
The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be believed only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called faith.
music piano feelings
Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words.
love book learning
There are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the poorest laborer can have for nothing.
truth-is immortal
Nothing but truth is immortal.
superstitions academy built
Science built the Academy, superstition the Inquisition.
promise jehovah vices
Jehovah was not a moral god. He had all the vices and he lacked all the virtues. He generally carried out all his threats, but he never faithfully kept a promise.
thinking people
Many people think they have religion when they are troubled with dyspepsia.
promise littles investment
I have little confidence in any enterprise or business or investment that promises dividends only after the death of the stockholders.
theology knows
Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature.
prayer children intelligent
Every child should be taught that useful work is worship and that intelligent labor is the highest form of prayer.
men light torches
The man who finds a truth lights a torch.
people soul smallest
I have always noticed that the people who have the smallest souls make the most fuss about getting them saved.
faith religious war
For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said "Think" The many have said "Believe!"
peer-pressure cradle tombs
Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb.