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Robert Green Ingersoll

Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes

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Famous Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes

“Would God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly? Would he give me brains and make it a crime to think? Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn't make a decent thief. When I read a book and don't believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.”

ThinkingMenGivingBelieveChildrenBookBrainHonestCrimeExpressionOughtBirdConsequenceGive MeWingsDon't BelieveDamnDecentThievesBirds Wings
Book: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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“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.”

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Book:Prose-poems and Selections from the Writings and Sayings of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“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.”

MenHas BeensMadeRealEndsSeemsPainLyingBeliefChristianityEnemyImpossibleTruth IsEternalWorshipInfiniteHungerRevengePunishmentCivilizedContemptDogmaTestamentNew TestamentMaliceOld TestamentAbhorrence
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“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.”

IfsMenBelieveKindLittlesHas BeensSaidSoulSelfOrderReligiousChristianityForeverHonestFellowsBottomSavedDoctrineFoundersPersecutionFellow ManDefenceCharitableSelf DefenceReligious Persecution
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“No one, in the world's whole history, ever attempted to substantiate a truth by a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders. No miracle ever was performed, and no sane man ever thought he had performed one, and until one is performed, there can be no evidence of the existence of any power superior to, and independent of nature.”

MenWorldWholeExistenceWonderEvidenceMiracleIndependentSuperiorsSaneFalsehoodAssistanceScornSigns And Wonders
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“All of the Ten Commandments that are good were old; all that were new art foolish. If Jehovah had been civilized he would have left out the commandment about keeping the Sabbath, and in its place would have said: "Thou shalt not enslave thy fellow-men." He would have omitted the one about swearing, and said: "The man shall have but one wife, and the woman but one husband." He would have left out the one about graven images, and in its stead would have said: "Thou shalt not wage wars of extermination, and thou shalt not unsheathe the sword except in self-defence.”

IfsMenArtSaidWarSelfLeftWifeTenHusbandFellowsFoolishCivilizedCommandmentsFellow ManDefenceSabbathJehovahLeft OutTen CommandmentsSwearingExterminationSelf Defence
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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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.”

IfsThinkingMenYearsHeartDoeHandsFacesGrowsGentlemanMaskSplendidWrinklesGallantDecrepit
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“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.”

MenWorldBelieveMayHas BeensRealReasonWisdomTruthValuesLosesAliveHe ManKingsFameGainsRegardIndependentPhilosopherServantRejectsStationsBelieve In MeUtteranceSearchersSerfs
Book:Superstition and Other Essays
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“The greatest superstition now entertained by public men is that hypocrisy is the royal road to success.”

MenSuccessAchievementHypocrisySuperstitionsRoyalRoad To Success
Book: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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“I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to the merciful. Upon that rock I stand. That he will not torture the forgiving. Upon that rock I stand. That every man should be true to himself, and that there is no world, no star in which honesty is a crime. Upon that rock I stand.”

IfsMenWorldShouldMindMadeStarsRocksCrimeHonestyForgivingEvery ManBeing TrueTortureMercifulIf There Is A God
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both."”

MenWayChildrenHomeLyingLeftBoysHonestHonestyPolicyHe ManOur ChildrenBest WayBeing HonestYour ChildrenMaineHonesty Is The Best Policy
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants the worst is a slave in power.”

MenBelieveHumansSpiritReligionBornAtheismWorstHuman NatureMastersSlaveTyrannyIgnorantCompromiseCertaintyArroganceImperfectionTyrantsModestyAssuranceTheological
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, than there are leaves in all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in Hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies.”

MenWorldChildrenPainLyingReligionBeliefHeavenSinHellForeverAtheismHonestExpressionThousandTenEternalDiedAtheistWideForestsDoctrineDamnOrthodoxJudgedCreedsTormentSereneInfamousAnti Religious
Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
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“They say that when god was in Jerusalem he forgave his murderers, but now he will not forgive an honest man for differing with him on the subject of the Trinity. They say that God says to me, "Forgive your enemies." I say, "I do;" but he says, "I will damn mine." God should be consistent. If he wants me to forgive my enemies he should forgive his. I am asked to forgive enemies who can hurt me. God is only asked to forgive enemies who cannot hurt him. He certainly ought to be as generous as he asks us to be.”

IfsMenWantShouldReligionAsksHurtEnemyHellSubjectsHonestMinesOughtForgivingDamnGenerousConsistentWant MeMurdererHurt MeHonest ManJerusalemTrinityHe Wants MeForgive Your Enemies
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“God cannot send to eternal pain a man who has done something toward improving the condition of his fellow-man. If he can, I had rather go to hell than to heaven and keep company with such a god.”

IfsMenDonePainHeavenCompanyHellConditionsEternalFellowsImprovingFellow ManGo To Hell
Book:Lectures: Including His Letters on The Chinese God. Is Suicide a Sin? The Right to One's Life. Etc., Etc., Etc
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“My heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain... to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.”

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Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“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.”

IfsMenBelieveHas BeensMadeReligionHateBeliefOpinionForeverEffectsJudgmentBuiltMurderSlaverySakeSoldierPunishmentBabePersecutedPolygamyPuritanInquisitionDungeonsUnbelieversQuaker
Book:Interviews
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“It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.”

MenBookPhilosophyLawReligionWrittenHe ManMiracleAncientRelatedFollyAdmirationCivilizedFalsehoodAbsurdityObjectionsBarbaricMingling
Book:Life and letters
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“The old doctrine that God wanted man to do something for him, and that he kept a watchful eye upon all the children of men; that he rewarded the virtuous and punished the wicked, is gradually fading from the mind. We know that some of the worst men have what the world calls success. We know that some of the best men lie upon the straw of failure. We know that honesty goes hungry, while larceny sits at the banquet. We know that the vicious have every physical comfort, while the virtuous are often clad in rags.”

KnowsMenWorldMindChildrenEyeWantedLyingReligionWorstHonestyComfortPunishmentHungryDoctrineWickedVirtuousViciousStrawsRagsFadingBanquetsLying MenChildren Of MenLarceny
Book:The Works of Robert G.Ingersoll. [Dresden Ed.]
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