There are times when a falsehood well told bridges over quite a difficulty, but in the long run, you had better tell the truth, even if you swim the creek. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity. – Robert Green Ingersoll
I do not believe anything comes by chance. I regard the present as the necessary child of a necessary past. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Intelligence, integrity and courage are the great pillars that support the State. Above all, the citizens of a free nation should honor the brave and independent man – the man of stainless integrity, of will and intellectual force. – Robert Green Ingersoll
In the grave should be buried the prejudices and passions born of conflict. Charity should hold the scales in which are weighed the deeds of men. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to protect the rights of man, I am a rebel. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to give man liberty, to clothe him in all his just rights, I am on the side of that rebellion. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Many Americans do not understand that the officers of the government are simply the servants of the people. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Neutrality is generally used as a mask to hide unusual bitterness. Sometimes it hides what it is – nothing. It always stands for hollowness of head or bitterness of heart, sometimes for both. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Religion is not theory – it is life. It is not intellectual conviction – it is divine humanity, and nothing else. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
I will live by the standard of reason, and if thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I will go to hell with my reason rather than to heaven without it. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. – Robert Green Ingersoll
The walls of that grand edifice called a good character have to be worked at during life. – Robert Green Ingersoll
A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition’s night, an inspiration and a prophecy. – Robert Green Ingersoll
Whoever labors for the happiness of those he loves elevates himself, no matter whether he works in the dreary shop or the perfumed field. – Robert Green Ingersoll
In my judgment, the American people are too brave, too charitable, too generous, too magnanimous, to believe in the infamous dogma of an eternal hell. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
They believed that every man should know how to read and how to write, and should find out all that his capacity allowed him to comprehend. That is the glory of the Puritan fathers. – Robert Green Ingersoll
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. – Robert Green Ingersoll
The sacred books of all the world are worthless dross and common stones compared with Shakespeare’s glittering gold and gleaming gems. – Robert Green Ingersoll