robert-green-ingersoll Quotes About has-beens

“If priests had not been fond of mutton, lambs never would have been sacrified to god. Nothing was ever carried to the temple that the priest could not use, and it always happened that god wanted what his agents liked.”

Ifs Has Beens Use Wanted Happened Agents Temples Priests Lambs Mutton

Book:Discussions

Source: Discussions

“The old man has been long at the fair. He is acquainted with the jugglers at the booths. His curiosity has been satisfied. He no longer cares for the exceptional, the monstrous, the marvelous and deformed. He looks through and beyond the gilding, the glitter and gloss, not only of things, but of conduct, of manners, theories, religions and philosophies. He sees clearer. The light no longer shines in his eyes.”

Men Looks Long Has Beens Philosophy Light Eye Care Theory Fairs Shining Curiosity Satisfied Manners His Eyes Old Man Marvelous Exceptional Discernment Monstrous Glitter Gloss Jugglers

Book:Miscellany

Source: Miscellany

“The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual pride, and show that we are never quite so dear to God as when we admit that we are poor, corrupt and idiotic worms; that we never should have been born; that we ought to be damned without the least delay.... The old creed is still taught. They still insist that God is infinitely wise, powerful and good, and that all men are totally depraved. They insist that the best man god ever made, deserved to be damned the moment he was finished.”

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“He who dishonors himself [by lying about his opinions] for the sake of being honored by others will find that two mistakes have been made - one by himself, and the other, by the people.”

People Has Beens Made Two Lying Mistake Opinion Atheism Sake Positive Atheism Honored Dishonor

Author:Robert Green Ingersoll

“Had he been willing to live a hypocrite, he would have been respectable, he at least could have died surrounded by other hypocrites, and at his death there would have been an imposing funeral, with miles of carriages, filled with hypocrites, and above his hypocritical dust there would have been a hypocritical monument covered with lies.”

Has Beens Lying Atheism Willing Died Filled Positive Atheism Miles Dust Covered Funeral Monument Hypocrite Respectable Imposing Carriages Hypocritical

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this infamous doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has blighted-of the tears it has caused-of the agony it has produced. Think of the millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of dogmas. This doctrine renters God the basest and most cruel being in the universe. ... There is nothing more degrading than to worship such a god.”

Thinking Has Beens Universe Evil Religious Millions Tears Terrible Eternal Worship Misery Driven Punishment Doctrine Insanity Dogma Agony Degrading Infamous

Author:Robert Green Ingersoll

“If a man wishes to have God recognized in the constitution of our country, let him read the history of the Inquisition, and let him remember that hundreds of millions of men, women, and children have been sacrificed to placate the wrath, or win the approbation of this god.”

Ifs Men Children Has Beens Country Remember Evil Winning Wish Religious Millions Constitution Our Country Wrath Men Women Inquisition

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Miscellany

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Miscellany

“The church in all ages and among all peoples has been the consistent enemy of the human race. Everywhere and at all times, it has opposed the liberty of thought and expression. It has been the sworn enemy of investigation and intellectual development. It has denied the existence of facts, the tendency of which was to undermine its power. It has always been carrying fagots to the feet of Philosophy. It has erected the gallows for Genius. It has built the dungeon for Thinkers.”

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“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.”

“There are some truths, however, that we should never forget: Superstition has always been the relentless enemy of science; faith has been a hater of demonstration; hypocrisy has been sincere only in its dread of truth, and all religions are inconsistent with mental freedom.”

Should Has Beens Forget Enemy Hypocrisy Sincere Never Forget Superstitions Dread Demonstration Relentless Inconsistent

Book:Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc. : Complete

Source: Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc. : Complete

“For thousands of years people have been trying to force other people to think their way. Did they succeed? No. Will they succeed? No. Why? Because brute force is not an argument.”

People Thinking Way Trying Years Has Beens Force Succeed Argument Brutes Brute Force

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“The man who accepts opinions because they have been entertained by distinguished people, is a mental snob.”

People Men Has Beens Accepting Opinion He Man Distinguished Snob

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll ...

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll ...

“I want it so that every minister will be not a parrot, not an owl sitting upon a dead limb of the tree of knowledge and hooting the hoots that have been hooted for eighteen hundred years. But I want it so that each one can be an investigator, a thinker; and I want to make his congregation grand enough so that they will not only allow him to think, but will demand that he shall think, and give to them the honest truth of his thought.”

“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.”

Littles Has Beens Made Heaven Nations Religious Poor Materials Cost Phantoms Raw Materials

Book:The Gods, and Other Lectures

Source: The Gods, and Other Lectures

“It seems to me impossible for a civilized man to love or worship, or respect the God of the Old Testament. A really civilized man, a really civilized woman, must hold such a God in abhorrence and contempt... In the New Testament, death is not the end, but the beginning of punishment that has no end. In the New Testament the malice of God is infinite and the hunger of his revenge eternal... This frightful dogma, this infinite lie, made me the implacable enemy of Christianity. The truth is that this belief in eternal pain has been the real persecutor.”

“At the bottom of religious persecution is the doctrine of self-defence; that is to say, the defence of the soul. If the founder of Christianity had plainly said: 'It is not necessary to believe in order to be saved; it is only necessary to do, and he who really loves his fellow-men, who is kind, honest, just and charitable, is to be forever blest' - if he had only said that, there would probably have been but little persecution.”

“Love is natural. Back of allceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world's history when that torch was extinguished. In all ages, in all climes, among all people, there has been true, pure, and unselfish love.”

People World Life Has Beens Age Natural Love Is Forever Pure Sacred Flames Love Life Torches Unselfish Unselfish Love

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf - a philosopher or servant, - but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.”

Source: Superstition and Other Essays

“There will never be a generation of great men until there has been a generation of free women - of free mothers.”

Men Has Beens Mother Liberty Generations Equality Great Men

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

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

Has Beens Religion Enemy Forever Progress Atheism Superstitions Foe Assassins

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“The only thing that makes life endurable in this world is human love, and yet, according to Christianity, that is the very thing that we are not to have in the other world. We are to be so taken up with Jesus and angels, that we shall care nothing about our brothers and sisters that have been damned. We shall be so carried away with the music of the harp that we shall not even hear the wail of father and mother. Such a religion is a disgrace to human nature.”

“If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.”

Source: Interviews

“Just to the extent that the Bible was appealed to in matters of science, science was retarded; and just to the extent that science has been appealed to in matters of religion, religion has advanced - so that now the object of intelligent religionists is to adopt a creed that will bear the test and criticism of science.”

Has Beens Matter Religion Objects Bears Criticism Tests Intelligent Creeds Retarded

Book:Superstition and Other Essays

Source: Superstition and Other Essays

“Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music.”

Humans Has Beens Art Born Affection Strain Could Have Been

Book:Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage

Source: Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage

“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!"”

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“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?”

Ifs Thinking Has Beens Remember Universe Imagine Happened Eternity Infinite Absurd Commencement Infinite Intelligence

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“There is something tenderly appropriate in the serene death of the old. Nothing is more touching than the death of the young, the strong.”

Long Has Beens Done Eye Past Fall Memories Sun Records Acceptance Duty Welcome Appropriate Spells Twilight Weary Traveler Strain Purple Serene Faded Kindred Inns

Author:Robert Green Ingersoll

“Crimes were committed to punish crimes, and crimes were committed to prevent crimes. The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen and heads-men — and yet these frightful means and instrumentalities have committed far more crimes than they have prevented.... Ignorance, filth, and poverty are the missionaries of crime. As long as dishonorable success outranks honest effort — as long as society bows and cringes before the great thieves, there will be little ones enough to fill the jails.”

Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes

Filter quotes by topic

Famous Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes