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
heaven want reason
If I go to heaven I want to take my reason with me.
men law giving
Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the Jews, and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or proposed to worship any other God that they should kill him; and suppose that afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this very chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon the Jews crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he had sown? What right would this god have to complain of a crucifixion suffered in accordance with his own command?
laughter laughing crime
Laughing has always been considered by theologians as a crime.
fire orthodoxy hell
Orthodoxy cannot afford to put out the fires of hell.
fear hypocrisy soul
Fear is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul.
men soul atheism
Nothing is greater than to break the chains from the bodies of men - nothing nobler than to destroy the phantom of the soul.
past brutality crime
He who commends the brutalities of the past, sows the seeds of future crimes.
real ignorant enemy
Only those who live on the labor of the ignorant are the enemies of science. Real love and real religion are in no danger from science. The more we know the safer all good things are.
greed arrogance spirituality
Spirituality for the most part is a mask worn by idleness, arrogance and greed.
fall ignorance fabric
Today the intelligence of the world denies the miraculous. Ignorance is the soil of the supernatural. The foundation of Christianity has crumbled, has disappeared, and the entire fabric must fall. The natural is true. The miraculous is false.
stars love-is hands
The hands that help are better far / Than lips that pray. / Love is the ever gleaming star / That leads the way, / That shines, not on vague worlds of bliss, / But on a paradise in this.
receiving deserving deserve
It is better to deserve without receiving than to receive without deserving
mother children believe
Environment is a sculptor - a painter. If we had been born in Constantinople, then most of us would have said: 'There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.' If our parents had lived on the banks of the Ganges, we would have been worshipers of Siva, longing for the heaven of Nirvana. As a rule, children love their parents, believe what they teach, and take great pride in saying that the religion of mother is good enough for them.
children men if-there-is-a-god
If there be gods we cannot help them, but we can assist our fellow men. We cannot love the inconceivable, but we can love wife and child and friend.