Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

“Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.”

“Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Any man who is afraid to have his doctrine investigated is not only a coward but a hypocrite.”

“As more people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers.”

“Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.”

“Courage without conscience is a wild beast.”

“Every man who expresses an honest thought is a soldier in the army of intellectual liberty.”

“Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!”

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

“I do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church. We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves.”

“If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.”

“If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help – we need not waste our energies in his defense.”

“In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.”

“In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.”

“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.”

“It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a god would choose for his companions, during all eternity, the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey.”

“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”

“Ministers say that they teach charity. This is natural. They live on alms. All beggars teach that others should give.”

“Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words.”

“Nothing but truth is immortal.”

“Our ignorance is God; what we know is science.”

“Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.”

“Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile.”

“Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains.”

“The agnostic does not simply say, "l do not know." He goes another step, and he says, with great emphasis, that you do not know.”

“The greatest test of courage is to bear defeat without losing heart.”

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

“The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn. The less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.”

“The truth shall make you free, but first it shall make you angry.”

“There are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the poorest laborer can have for nothing.”

“To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself.”