Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes

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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.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Inspirational, Motivational, Happiness

Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Miscellany”

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Honesty, Integrity, Character

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2445, Library of Alexandria

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Inspiring, Wisdom, Nature

'Some Reasons Why' (1881) pt. 8 'The New Testament' in 'The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll' (1915) vol. 2, p. 315

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...in every religion the priest insists on five things -
First: There is a God.
Second: He has made known his will.
Third: He has selected me to explain this message.
Fourth: We will now take up a collection; and
Fifth: Those who fail to subscribe will certainly be damned.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Messages, Firsts, Failing

Robert Green Ingersoll (1920). “Ingersoll: Fifty Great Selections, Lectures, Tributes, After Dinner Speeches and Essays, Carefully Selected from the Twelve Volume Dresden Edition of Colonel Ingersoll's Complete Works”

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Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth - each of the other.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Religion, Atheism, World

Robert Green Ingersoll (1898). “Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Letters on the Chinese God--Is Suicide a Sin?--The Right to One's Life--etc. Etc. Etc”

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Freedom, Men, Tyrants

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.55, Library of Alexandria

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Inspirational, Happiness, Depression

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1681, Library of Alexandria

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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.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Men, Doubt, Mind

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.183, Library of Alexandria

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Respect, Rights, Giving

"The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll", Vol VII, 2009.

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If the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?

Robert Green Ingersoll

Book, Brain, Faults

Robert Green Ingersoll, Jeremiah Sullivan Black, George Park Fisher (1882). “The Christian Religion: A Series of Articles from the North American Review”

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Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Religion, Atheism, Reform

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1182, Library of Alexandria

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Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Forever, Enemy, Religion

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1083, Library of Alexandria

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The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Revenge, Heart, Men

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Think of the egotism of a man who believes that an infinite being wants his praise!

Robert Green Ingersoll

Believe, Men, Thinking

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1173, Library of Alexandria

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It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Christian, Country, Book

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As we become civilized we are governed less by persons and more by principles. . . . The best of all leaders is the man who teaches people to lead themselves.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Leadership, Men, People

Robert Green Ingersoll, Herman Eugene Kittredge (1912). “Interviews”

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

Robert Green Ingersoll

Inspirational, Positive, Sports

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.3045, Library of Alexandria

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The Emperor Constantine, who lifted Christianity into power, murdered his wife Fausta, and his eldest son Crispus, the same year that he convened the Council of Nice to decide whether Jesus Christ was a man or the Son of God. The council decided that Christ was consubstantial with the father. This was in the year 325. We are thus indebted to a wife-murderer for settling the vexed question of the divinity of the Savior.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Jesus, Father, Nice

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.776, Library of Alexandria

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The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Atheist, Hands, Religion

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.886, Library of Alexandria

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It is a splendid thing to think that the woman you really love will never grow old to you. Through the wrinkles of time, through the mask of years, if you really love her, you will always see the face you love and won. And a woman who really loves a man does not see that he grows old; he is not decrepit to her; she always sees the same gallant gentleman who won her hand and heart.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Heart, Men, Thinking

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.209, Library of Alexandria

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If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to create. Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever happened. What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?

Robert Green Ingersoll

Thinking, Infinite Intelligence, Remember

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.324, Library of Alexandria

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The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Men, Intellectual, Religion

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.49, Library of Alexandria

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Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Ignorance, Miracle, Religion

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1070, Library of Alexandria

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We rise by lifting others.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Helping Others, Society, Public Service

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When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Atheist, Wall, Light

Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.929, Library of Alexandria

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Born: August 11, 1833
Died: July 21, 1899
Occupation: Lawyer
Cite this Page: Citation

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