Has beens Quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll

He who dishonors himself [by lying about his opinions] for the sake of being honored by others will find that two mistakes…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

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

— Robert Green Ingersoll

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

— Robert Green Ingersoll

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

— Robert Green Ingersoll

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

— Robert Green Ingersoll

For thousands of years people have been trying to force other people to think their way. Did they succeed? No. Will they…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

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

If a man wishes to have God recognized in the constitution of our country, let him read the history of the Inquisition,…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this infamous doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has…

— 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…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

There are some truths, however, that we should never forget: Superstition has always been the relentless enemy of science; faith has been…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

If priests had not been fond of mutton, lambs never would have been sacrified to god. Nothing was ever carried to the…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

Love is natural. Back of allceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world's…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

Just to the extent that the Bible was appealed to in matters of science, science was retarded; and just to the extent…

— 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,…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The only thing that makes life endurable in this world is human love, and yet, according to Christianity, that is the very…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual pride, and show that we are never quite so dear to God…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

I want it so that every minister will be not a parrot, not an owl sitting upon a dead limb of the…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

Environment is a sculptor - a painter. If we had been born in Constantinople, then most of us would have said: 'There…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new.…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

It seems to me impossible for a civilized man to love or worship, or respect the God of the Old Testament. A…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

At the bottom of religious persecution is the doctrine of self-defence; that is to say, the defence of the soul. If the…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The old man has been long at the fair. He is acquainted with the jugglers at the booths. His curiosity has been…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

The church in all ages and among all peoples has been the consistent enemy of the human race. Everywhere and at all…

— Robert Green Ingersoll

For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one…

— Robert Green Ingersoll