Robert Green Ingersoll

Every church that has a standard higher than human welfare is dangerous.

Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars.

Intellectual liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of the mind, and without it, the world is a prison, the universe is a dungeon.

When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both."

I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to the merciful. Upon that rock I stand. That he will not torture the forgiving. Upon that rock I stand. That every man should be true to himself, and that there is no world, no star in which honesty is a crime. Upon that rock I stand.

The closer I'm bound in love to you, the closer I am to free.

I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this.

When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust.

A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.

The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn-the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

And yet this same Deity says to me, resist not evil; pray for those that despitefully use you; love your enemies, but I will eternally damn mine. It seems to me that even gods should practice what they preach.

The rights of men and women should be equal and sacred-marriage should be a perfect partnership.

Liberty is the breath of progress.

One laugh of a child will make the holiest day more sacred still.

One good schoolmaster is worth a thousand priests.

And why does this same God tell me how to raise my children when he had to drown his?

To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself.

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

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

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

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.