Robert Green Ingersoll quotes

Character is made of duty and love and sympathy, and, above all, of living and working for others.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

A prayer that must have a cannon behind it better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.

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.

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

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.

When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest thinkers, then - and not until then - will the dream of poet, patriot, philanthropist and philosopher become a real and blessed truth.

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

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight.

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

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

A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.

A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

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

A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.

You need not go back four thousand years for heroines. The world is filled with them today. They do not belong to any nation, nor to any religion, nor exclusively to any race. Wherever woman is found, they are found.

A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy.

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

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

When you go home, fill the house with joy so that the light of it will stream out the windows and doors and illuminate even the darkness. It is just as easy that way as any in the world.

Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power.

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.

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

What is it that distinguishes you and me from the lower animals - from the beasts? More, I say, than anything else, human sympathy - human sympathy.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

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

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

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

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

It is hard to conceive of the utter demoralization, of the political blindness and immorality, of the patriotic dishonesty, of the cruelty and degradation of a people who supplemented the incomparable Declaration of Independence with the Fugitive Slave Law.

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.