Robert Green Ingersoll

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

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

In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.

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.

Reason observation and experience, the holy trinity of science.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are consequences.

It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

There is no slavery but ignorance.

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

When the will defies fear when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot.

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.

Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate.

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven the best to hell.

A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie.

In our era the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

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.

We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts and to stand by their convictions even to the very death.

Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought at least you are without a chain, that you have the right to explore all heights and depth, that there are no walls nor fences nor prohibited places nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought.

Insolence is not logic, epithets are the arguments of malice.

Few rich men own their property, their property owns them.

The more liberty you give away the more you will have.

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime then I attack them one and all because they enslave the minds of men.

My creed is that: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.

If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me that doesn't pay Smith.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others no matter if he occupies a throne.

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

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

In the night of death hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.

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.

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

In the presence of eternity the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

An honest God is the noblest work of man.

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