Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Robert Green Ingersoll

Quote by Robert Green Ingersoll

“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.”

Quote by Robert Green Ingersoll

Author

Robert Green Ingersoll
Robert Green Ingersoll

Robert Green Ingersoll was a prominent lawyer, orator, and freethinker. Born on August 11, 1833, and died on July 21, 1899, he was one of the most celebrated orators in 19th-century America. Known for his criticism of religion and government, Ingersoll was a leading advocate for individual freedom. more

You May Also Like

“Memories which someday will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds.”

“Sejal had not thought of her home, or of India as a whole, as cool. She was dimly aware, however, of a white Westerner habit of wearing other cultures like T-shirts—the sticker bindis on club kids, sindoor in the hair of an unmarried pop star, Hindi characters inked carelessly on tight tank tops and pale flesh. She knew Americans liked to flash a little Indian or Japanese or African. They were always looking for a little pepper to put in their dish.”

“It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.”