I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.
Robert Green IngersollRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the essential qualities of intelligence, integrity, and courage for the well-being of a state and its citizens.
Robert Green Ingersoll highlights the foundational qualities that support a free nation: intelligence, integrity, and courage. He argues that citizens should respect and honor those who embody these traits, particularly those who demonstrate bravery and independence. Ingersoll suggests that a society thrives when its individuals possess moral strength and intellectual capability, reinforcing the importance of these virtues for a healthy state.
Themes
IntelligenceIntegrityCourageFreedomValues
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to inspire students about the importance of character.
More from Robert Green Ingersoll
All quotes βIf the guardians of society, the protectors of 'young persons,' could have had their way, we should have known nothing of Byron or Shelley. The voices that thrill the world would now be silent.
Robert Green IngersollRead
The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.
Robert Green IngersollRead
There is no slavery but ignorance.
Robert Green IngersollRead
In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.
Robert Green IngersollRead
I believe that there is something far nobler than loyalty to any particular man. Loyalty to the truth as we perceive it - loyalty to our duty as we know it - loyalty to the ideals of our brain and heart - is, to my mind, far greater and far nobler than loyalty to the life of any particular man or God. . . .
Robert Green IngersollRead
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Your masters at Oxford have taught you to idolize reason, drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart!
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I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for.
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Low self-esteem causes me to believe that I have so little worth that my response does not matter. With repentance, however, I understand that being worth so much to God is why my response is so important. Repentance is remedial work to mend our minds and hearts, which get bent by sin.
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Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
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