Quotes from Robert G. Ingersoll

When a man is of no use to himself or to others, when his days and nights are filled with pain and sorrow, why should he remain to endure them longer?

I believe that all actions that tend to the well-being of sentient beings are virtuous and moral.

In the name of universal benevolence Christians have hated their fellow-men.

Whoever imagines himself a favorite with God, holds other people in contempt.

Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise.

Belief is not a voluntary thing. A man believes or disbelieves in spite of himself.

we are taught that God is exceedingly anxious that we should believe a certain thing.

We cannot assist the Infinite, but we can assist our fellow-men.

An Infinite personality is an infinite impossibility

Everything in nature tells a different story to all eyes that see and to all ears that hear.

The people also found that commerce made friends where religion made enemies, and that religious zeal was utterly incompatible with peace between nations or individuals.

Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. In this sense, every church is a cemetery and every creed an epitaph.

Is it possible that St. Paul was inspired of God, when he said: "Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection."—"Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man?

Lewis Meggleton had given himself out as the last and the greatest of the prophets, having power to save or damn.

So, when we look upon a flower, a painting, a statue, a star, or a violet, the more we know, the more we have experienced, the more we have thought, the more we remember, the more the statue, the star, the painting, the violet has to tell.

The truth is, that what is called religion is necessarily inconsistent with free thought. A believer is a bird in a cage, a Freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.

Every flower that gives its fragrance to the wandering air leaves its influence on the soul of man. The wheel and swoop of the winged creatures of the air suggest the flowing lines of subtle art. The roar and murmur of the restless sea, the cataract's solemn chant, the thunder's voice, the happy babble of the brook, the whispering leaves, the thrilling notes of mating birds, the sighing winds, taught man to pour his heart in song and gave a voice to grief and hope, to love and death.

To accomplish this there is but one way. Science must make woman the owner, the mistress of herself. Science, the only possible savior of mankind, must put it in the power of woman to decide for herself whether she will or will not become a mother.

If the Bible is the work of God, it should contain the sublimest truths, it should excel the works of man, it should contain the loftiest definitions of justice, the best conceptions of human liberty, the clearest outlines of duty, the tenderest and noblest thoughts.

It does not occur to him that it is necessary to account for the existence of an infinite personality. He is perfectly certain that there can be no design without a designer, and he is equally certain that there can be a designer who was not designed.

Is it possible to imagine an infinite intelligence dwelling for an eternity in infinite nothing?

In the realm of thought majorities do not determine. Each brain is a kingdom, each mind is a sovereign.

What is morality? It is the best thing to do under the circumstances. What is the best thing to do under the circumstances? That which will increase the sum of human happiness—or lessen it the least. Happiness in its highest, noblest form, is the only good; that which increases or preserves or creates happiness is moral—that which decreases it, or puts it in peril, is immoral.

War never can be the interest of a trading nation any more than quarreling can be profitable to a man in business. But to make war with those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a customer at the shop-door.