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A Few Years Ago The Deists Denied The Inspiration Of The Bible On Account Of Its Cruelty. At The Same Time They Worshiped What They Were Pleased To Call The God Of Nature. Now We Are Convinced That Nature Is As Cruel As The Bible; So That, If The God Of Nature Did Not Write The Bible, This God At Least Has Caused Earthquakes And Pestilence And Famine, And This God Has Allowed Millions Of His Children To Destroy One Another. So That Now We Have Arrived At The Question - Not As To Whether The Bible Is Inspired And Not As To Whether Jehovah Is The Real God, But Whether There Is A God Or Not.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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A Few Years Ago

Robert Green Ingersoll

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A Few Years Ago The Deists Denied The Inspiration Of The Bible On Account Of Its Cruelty. At The Same Time They Worshiped What They Were Pleased To Call The God Of Nature. Now We Are Convinced That Nature Is As Cruel As The Bible; So That, If The God Of Nature Did Not Write The Bible, This God At Least Has Caused Earthquakes And Pestilence And Famine, And This God Has Allowed Millions Of His Children To Destroy One Another. So That Now We Have Arrived At The Question - Not As To Whether The Bible Is Inspired And Not As To Whether Jehovah Is The Real God, But Whether There Is A God Or Not.

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Sacred Are The Lips From Which Has Issued Only Truth.

It Seems To Me Impossible For A Civilized Man To Love Or Worship, Or Respect The God Of The Old Testament. A Really Civilized Man, A Really Civilized Woman, Must Hold Such A God In Abhorrence And Contempt.

The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles, And Thorns Is A Benefactor Whether He Soweth Grain Or Not.

Making A Difference

In The Presence Of Death I Affirm And Reaffirm The Truth Of All That I Have Said Against The Superstitions Of The World. I Would Say That Much On The Subject With My Last Breath.

Give To Every Human Being Every Right That You Claim For Yourself.

As Long As A Man Lives He Should Study. Death Alone Has The Right To Dismiss The School.

Insolence Is Not Logic; Epithets Are The Arguments Of Malice.

A Miracle Is The Badge And Brand Of Fraud. ... No Intelligent, Honest Man Ever Pretended To Perform A Miracle, And Never Will.

The More False We Destroy, The More Room There Will Be For The True.

Some President Wishes To Be Re-elected, And Thereupon Speaks About The Bible As "the Corner-stone Of American Liberty." This Sentence Is A Mouth Large Enough To Swallow Any Church, And From That Time Forward The Religious People Will Be Citing That Remark Of The Politician To Substantiate The Inspiration Of The Scriptures.

Ignorance Worships Mystery; Reason Explains It; The One Grovels, The Other Soars.

All Religion Is Slavery.

Is There An Intelligent Man Or Woman Now In The World Who Believes In The Garden Of Eden Story? If You Find Any Man Who Believes It, Strike His Forehead And You Will Hear An Echo. Something Is For Rent.

There Is Something Wrong In A Government Where They Who Do The Most Have The Least. There Is Something Wrong When Honesty Wears A Rag, And Rascality A Robe; When The Loving, The Tender, East A Crust, While The Infamous Sit At Banquets.

Progress Is Born Of Doubt And Inquiry. The Church Never Doubts, Never Inquires. To Doubt Is Heresy, To Inquire Is To Admit That You Do Not Know—the Church Does Neither.

Custom Meets Us At The Cradle And Leaves Us Only At The Tomb.

Belief Is Not A Matter Of Choice, But Of Conviction.

Every Church Pretends To Have Found The Exact Truth. This Is The End Of Progress. Why Pursue That Which You Have? Why Investigate When You Know? Every Creed Is A Rock In Running Water: Humanity Sweeps By It. Every Creed Cries To The Universe, "halt!" A Creed Is The Ignorant Past Bullying The Enlightened Present. The Ignorant Are Not Satisfied With What Can Be Demonstrated. Science Is Too Slow For Them, And So They Invent Creeds. They Demand Completeness. A Sublime Segment, A Grand Fragment, Are Of No Value To Them. They Demand The Complete Circle... The Entire Structure.

The Idea Of Immortality, That Like A Sea Has Ebbed And Flowed In The Human Heart, With Its Countless Waves Of Hope And Fear, Beating Against The Shores And Rocks Of Time And Fate, Was Not Born Of Any Book, Nor Of Any Creed, Nor Of Any Religion. It Was Born Of Human Affection, And It Will Continue To Ebb And Flow Beneath The Mists And Clouds Of Doubt And Darkness As Long As Love Kisses The Lips Of Death. It Is The Rainbow -- Hope Shining Upon The Tears Of Grief.

The Man Who Accepts Opinions Because They Have Been Entertained By Distinguished People, Is A Mental Snob.

The Few Have Said, Think! The Many Have Said, Believe! The First Doubt Was The Womb And Cradle Of Progress, And From The First Doubt, Man Has Continued To Advance.

This Crime Called Blasphemy Was Invented By Priests For The Purpose Of Defending Doctrines Not Able To Take Care Of Themselves.

It Is Impossible For Me To Conceive Of A Character More Utterly Detestable Than That Of The Hebrew God.

With Their Backs To The Sunrise They Worship The Night.

The Emperor Constantine, Who Lifted Christianity Into Power, Murdered His Wife Fausta, And His Eldest Son Crispus, The Same Year That He Convened The Council Of Nice To Decide Whether Jesus Christ Was A Man Or The Son Of God. The Council Decided That Christ Was Consubstantial With The Father. This Was In The Year 325. We Are Thus Indebted To A Wife-murderer For Settling The Vexed Question Of The Divinity Of The Savior.

Christianity Did Not Come With Tidings Of Great Joy, But With A Message Of Eternal Grief. It Came With The Threat Of Everlasting Torture On Its Lips. It Meant War On Earth And Perdition Hereafter.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

If This Religion Is True, Then There Is Only One Savior, Only One Narrow Path To Life. Christianity Cannot Live In Peace With Any Other Religion.

It Is A Thousand Times Better To Have Common Sense Without Education Than To Have Education Without Common Sense.

Our Hope Of Immortality Does Not Come From Any Religions, But Nearly All Religions Come From That Hope.

Intellect, Without Heart, Is Infinitely Cruel. . . . So That, After All, The Real Aristocracy Must Be That Of Goodness Where The Intellect Is Directed By The Heart.

Martyrdom, As A Rule, Establishes The Sincerity Of The Martyr, Never The Correctness Of His Thought. Things Are True Or False In Themselves.

Our Ignorance Is God; What We Know Is Science. When We Abandon The Doctrine That Some Infinite Being Created Matter And Force, And Enacted A Code Of Laws For Their Government ... The Real Priest Will Then Be, Not The Mouth-piece Of Some Pretended Deity, But The Interpreter Of Nature.

If All The Historic Books Of The Bible Were Blotted From The Memory Of Mankind, Nothing Of Value Would Be Lost.

I Would Not For My Life Destroy One Star Of Human Hope, But I Want It So That When A Poor Woman Rocks The Cradle And Sings A Lullaby To The Dimpled Darling, She Will Not Be Compelled To Believe That Ninety-nine Chances In A Hundred She Is Raising Kindling Wood For Hell.

I Would Rather Live And Love Where Death Is King Than Have Eternal Life Where Love Is Not.

A Believer Is A Bird In A Cage, A Freethinker Is An Eagle Parting The Clouds With Tireless Wing.

The Good Part Of Christmas Is Not Always Christian -- It Is Generally Pagan; That Is To Say, Human, Natural.

It Is Hard For Many People To Give Up The Religion In Which They Were Born; To Admit That Their Fathers Were Utterly Mistaken, And That The Sacred Records Of Their Country Are But Collections Of Myths And Fables.

In Our Era, The Road To Holiness Necessarily Passes Through The World Of Action.

Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

All The Professors In All The Religious Colleges In This Country Rolled Into One, Would Not Equal Charles Darwin.

There Is No Necessity For Going To The Church And Hearing The Same Story Forever. Let The Minister Write What He Wishes To Say. Let Him Publish It. If It Is Worth Buying, People Will Read It. It Is Hardly Fair To Get Them In A Church In The Name Of Duty And There Inflict Upon Them A Sermon That Under No Circumstances They Would Read...the Idea Of Going Fifty-two Days In A Year To Hear Anybody On The Same Subject Is Absurd.

Every Church That Has A Standard Higher Than Human Welfare Is Dangerous.

Christianity Has Made More Lunatics Than It Ever Provided Asylums For.

Commerce Is The Great Civilizer. We Exchange Ideas When We Exchange Fabrics.

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

Every Man Who Expresses An Honest Thought Is A Soldier In The Army Of Intellectual Liberty.

If Jehovah Cannot Support His Religion Without Going Into Partnership With A State Legislature, I Think He Ought To Give It Up.

Eternal Punishment Must Be Eternal Cruelty, And I Do Not See How Any Man, Unless He Has The Brain Of An Idiot, Or The Heart Of A Wild Beast, Can Believe In Eternal Punishment.

Heresy Is A Cradle; Orthodoxy A Coffin.

Every Sect Is A Certificate That God Has Not Plainly Revealed His Will To Man. To Each Reader The Bible Conveys A Different Meaning.

I Honestly Believe That The Doctrine Of Hell Was Born In The Glittering Eyes Of Snakes That Run In Frightful Coils Watching For Their Prey. I Believe It Was Born With The Yelping, Howling, Growling And Snarling Of Wild Beasts... I Despise It, I Defy It, And I Hate It.

The Ministers, Who Preached At These Revivals, Were In Earnest. They Were Zealous And Sincere. They Were Not Philosophers. To Them Science Was The Name Of A Vague Dread - A Dangerous Enemy. They Did Not Know Much, But They Believed A Great Deal.

Like An Armed Warrior, Like A Plumed Knight, James G. Blaine Marched Down The Halls Of The American Congress And Threw His Shining Lance Full And Fair Against The Brazen Foreheads Of The Defamers Of His Country, And The Maligners Of His Honor.

In The Presence Of Eternity, The Mountains Are As Transient As The Clouds.

Do The Best That Can Be Done And Then . . . Be Resigned.

As Long As Woman Regards The Bible As The Charter Of Her Rights, She Will Be The Slave Of Man. The Bible Was Not Written By A Woman. Within Its Leaves There Is Nothing But Humiliation And Shame For Her.

There Is Something Tenderly Appropriate In The Serene Death Of The Old. Nothing Is More Touching Than The Death Of The Young, The Strong.

Language Is Not Subtle Enough, Tender Enough, To Express All That We Feel; And When Language Fails, The Highest And Deepest Longings Are Translated Into Music. Music Is The Sunshine - The Climate - Of The Soul, And It Floods The Heart With A Perfect June.

The Credulity Of The Church Is Decreasing, And The Most Marvelous Miracles Are Not Either 'explained,' Or Allowed To Take Refuge Behind The Mistakes Of The Translators, Or Hide In The Drapery Of Allegory.

The Most Important Thing In This World Is Liberty. More Important Than Food Or Clothes - More Important Than Gold Or Houses Or Lands - More Important Than Art Or Science - More Important Than All Religions, Is The Liberty Of Man.

All Prayers Die In The Air Which They Uselessly Agitate.

We Must Remember That We Have To Make Judges Out Of Men, And That By Being Made Judges Their Prejudices Are Not Diminished And Their Intelligence Is Not Increased.

The Myth Of Hell Represents All The Meanness, All The Revenge, All The Selfishness, All The Cruelty, All The Hatred, All The Infamy Of Which The Heart Of Man Is Capable.

If Abuses Are Destroyed, Man Must Destroy Them. If Slaves Are Freed, Man Must Free Them. If New Truths Are Discovered, Man Must Discover Them. If The Naked Are Clothed; If The Hungry Are Fed; If Justice Is Done; If Labor Is Rewarded; If Superstition Is Driven From The Mind; If The Defenseless Are Protected, And If The Right Finally Triumphs, All Must Be The Work Of Man. The Grand Victories Of The Future Must Be Won By Man, And By Man Alone.

Temptations Are As Thick As The Leaves Of The Forest, And No One Can Be Out Of The Reach Of Temptation Unless He Is Dead. The Great Thing Is To Make People Intelligent Enough And Strong Enough, Not To Keep Away From Temptation, But To Resist It.

The Hands That Help Are Better Far / Than Lips That Pray. / Love Is The Ever Gleaming Star / That Leads The Way, / That Shines, Not On Vague Worlds Of Bliss, / But On A Paradise In This.

The Church In All Ages And Among All Peoples Has Been The Consistent Enemy Of The Human Race. Everywhere And At All Times, It Has Opposed The Liberty Of Thought And Expression. It Has Been The Sworn Enemy Of Investigation And Intellectual Development. It Has Denied The Existence Of Facts, The Tendency Of Which Was To Undermine Its Power. It Has Always Been Carrying Fagots To The Feet Of Philosophy. It Has Erected The Gallows For Genius. It Has Built The Dungeon For Thinkers.

If There Is A God Who Will Damn His Children Forever, I Would Rather Go To Hell Than To Go To Heaven And Keep The Society Of Such An Infamous Tyrant.

If There Is A God

All I Have To Say Is, Love One Another - That Is The Height Of All Philosophy. It Is Beyond All Religions. It Is The Secret Of Joy - The Fountain Of Perpetual Youth - The Only Rainbow On Life's Dark Cloud.

The More Liberty You Give Away The More You Will Have.

If The World Ever Advances Beyond What It Is Today, It Must Be Led By Men Who Express Their Real Opinions.

I Read The Other Day An Account Of A Meeting Between John Knox And John Calvin. Imagine A Dialogue Between A Pestilence And A Famine!

Don't You Know That If People Could Bottle The Air They Would? Don't You Know That There Would Be An American Air-bottling Association? And Don't You Know That They Would Allow Thousands And Millions To Die For Want Of Breath, If They Could Not Pay For Air? I Am Not Blaming Anybody. I Am Just Telling How It Is.

A Man Is Not Moral Because He Is Obedient Through Fear Or Ignorance. Morality Lives In The Realm Of Perceived Obligation.

I Do Not See How It Is Possible For An Intelligent Human Being To Conclude That The Song Of Solomon Is The Work Of God, And That The Tragedy Of Lear Was The Work Of An Uninspired Man.

Abraham Lincoln Was, In My Judgment, In Many Respects, The Grandest Man Ever President Of The United States. Upon His Monument These Words Should Be Written: "here Sleeps The Only Man In The History Of The World Who, Having Been Clothed With Almost Absolute Power, Never Abused It, Except Upon The Side Of Mercy."

Catholicism Is Contrary To Human Liberty. Catholicism Bases Salvation Upon Belief. Catholicism Teaches Man To Trample His Reason Under Foot. And For That Reason It Is Wrong.

Memory Is The Miser Of The Mind; Forgetfulness The Spendthrift.

There Are Some Truths, However, That We Should Never Forget: Superstition Has Always Been The Relentless Enemy Of Science; Faith Has Been A Hater Of Demonstration; Hypocrisy Has Been Sincere Only In Its Dread Of Truth, And All Religions Are Inconsistent With Mental Freedom.

We Do Not Need The Forgiveness Of God, But Of Each Other And Of Ourselves.

The Intelligent And Good Man Holds In His Affections The Good And True Of Every Land -- The Boundaries Of Countries Are Not The Limitations Of His Sympathies. Caring Nothing For Race, Or Color, He Loves Those Who Speak Other Languages And Worship Other Gods. Between Him And Those Who Suffer, There Is No Impassable Gulf. He Salutes The World, And Extends The Hand Of Friendship To The Human Race. He Does Not Bow Before A Provincial And Patriotic God -- One Who Protects His Tribe Or Nation, And Abhors The Rest Of Mankind.

I Know Of No Crime That Has Not Been Defended By The Church, In One Form Or Other. The Church Is Not A Pioneer; It Accepts A New Truth, Last Of All, And Only When Denial Has Become Useless.

In Making Up My Mind As To What Mr. Lincoln Really Believed, I Do Not Take Into Consideration The Evidence Of Unnamed Persons Or The Contents Of Anonymous Letters; I Take The Testimony Of Those Who Knew And Loved Him, Of Those To Whom He Opened His Heart And To Whom He Spoke In The Freedom Of Perfect Confidence.

Injustice Upon Earth Renders The Justice Of Of Heaven Impossible.

Who Can Estimate The Misery That Has Been Caused By This Infamous Doctrine Of Eternal Punishment? Think Of The Lives It Has Blighted-of The Tears It Has Caused-of The Agony It Has Produced. Think Of The Millions Who Have Been Driven To Insanity By This Most Terrible Of Dogmas. This Doctrine Renters God The Basest And Most Cruel Being In The Universe. ... There Is Nothing More Degrading Than To Worship Such A God.

The Greatest Superstition Now Entertained By Public Men Is That Hypocrisy Is The Royal Road To Success.

I Have No Confidence In Any Religion That Can Be Demonstrated Only To Children.

There May Or May Not Be A Supreme Ruler Of The Universe-but We Are Certain That Man Exists, And We Believe That Freedom Is The Condition Of Progress; That It Is The Sunshine Of The Mental And Moral World, And That Without It Man Will Go Back To The Den Of Savagery, And Wll Become The Fit Associate Of Wild And Ferocious Beasts.

The Emblem Of Equal Rights. It Means Free Hands, Free Lips, Self- Government, And The Sovereignty Of The Individual.

Give Me The Storm And Tempest Of Thought And Action, Rather Than The Dead Calm Of Ignorance And Faith! Banish Me From Eden When You Will; But First Let Me Eat Of The Fruit Of The Tree Of Knowledge!

Joy Is Wealth And Love Is The Legal Tender Of The Soul.

If The People Were A Little More Ignorant, Astrology Would Flourish - If A Little More Enlightened, Religion Would Perish.

By Nature All People Are Alike, But By Education Become Different

All Laws For The Purpose Of Making Man Worship God, Are Born Of The Same Spirit That Kindled The Fires Of The Auto Da Fe, And Lovingly Built The Dungeons Of The Inquisition. All Laws Defining And Punishing Blasphemy - Making It A Crime To Give Your Honest Ideas About The Bible, Or To Laugh At The Ignorance Of The Ancient Jews, Or To Enjoy Yourself On The Sabbath, Or To Give Your Opinion Of Jehovah, Were Passed By Impudent Bigots, And Should Be At Once Repealed By Honest Men. An Infinite God Ought To Be Able To Protect Himself, Without Going In Partnership With State Legislatures.

Do You Not Know That Every Religion In The World Has Declared Every Other Religion A Fraud? Yes, We All Know It. That Is The Time All Religions Tell The Truth - Each Of The Other.

Whoever Imagines Himself A Favorite With God Holds Others In Contempt.

The Man Who Does Not Do His Own Thinking Is A Slave, And Is A Traitor To Himself And To His Fellow-men.

If You Have Ever Clothed Another With Woe, As With A Garment Of Pain, You Will Never Be Quite As Happy As Though You Had Not Done That Thing.

You Cannot Be So Poor That You Cannot Help Somebody.

If God Objected To [people With Various Handicaps], He Ought Not Have Created Such People.

I Thank Thee, Mother Nature, That Thou Hast Put Ingenuity Enough In The Brain Of A Child, When Attacked By A Brutal Parent, To Throw Up A Little Breastwork In The Shape Of A Lie.

Fear Is A Dagger With Which Hypocrisy Assassinates The Soul.

The God Of Hell Should Be Held In Loathing, Contempt And Scorn. A God Who Threatens Eternal Pain Should Be Hated, Not Loved - Cursed, Not Worshiped. A Heaven Presided Over By Such A God Must Be Below The Lowest Hell.

Justice Should Remove The Bandage From Her Eyes Long Enough To Distinguish Between The Vicious And The Unfortunate.

Justice For All

Any Doctrine That Will Not Bear Investigation Is Not A Fit Tenant For The Mind Of An Honest Man.

Liberty Is The Condition Of Progress. Without Liberty, There Remains Only Barbarism. Without Liberty, There Can Be No Civilization.

Labor Is The Only Prayer That Nature Answers.

It May Be That Ministers Really Think That Their Prayers Do Good, And It May Be That Frogs Imagine That Their Croaking Brings Spring.

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man. ... God Has Always Resembled His Creators. He Hated And Loved What They Hated And Loved And He Was Invariably Found On The Side Of Those In Power. ... Most Of The Gods Were Pleased With Sacrifice, And The Smell Of Innocent Blood Has Ever Been Considered A Divine Perfume.

It Cannot Be Said Too Often That Actions Are Good Or Bad In The Light Of Consequences, And That A Clear Perception Of Consequences Would Control Actions. That Which Increases The Sum Of Human Happiness Is Moral; And That Which Diminishes The Sum Of Human Happiness Is Immoral. . . . Blind, Unreasoning Obedience Is The Enemy Of Morality.

Nothing Could Add To The Horror Of Hell, Except The Presence Of Its Creator, God. While I Have Life, As Long As I Draw Breath, I Shall Deny With All My Strength, And Hate With Every Drop Of My Blood, This Infinite Lie.

Strange But True: Those Who Have Loved God Most Have Loved Men Least.

I Believe That Labor Is A Blessing. It Never Was And Never Will Be A Curse. It Is A Blessed Thing To Labor For . . . The Ones You Love. It Is A Blessed Thing To Have An Object In Life - Something To Do - Something To Call Into Play Your Best Thoughts, To Develop Your Faculties And To Make You A Man.

Heresy Is What The Minority Believe; It Is The Name Given By The Powerful To The Doctrines Of The Weak.

The Hope Of Science Is The Perfection Of The Human Race. The Hope Of Theology Is The Salvation Of A Few, And The Damnation Of Almost Everybody.

Commerce Makes Friends, Religion Makes Enemies; The One Enriches, And The Other Impoverishes; The One Thrives Best Where The Truth Is Told, The Other Where Falsehoods Are Believed.

The Few Took Advantage Of The Ignorant Many. They Pretended To Have Received Messages From The Unknown. They Stood Between The Helpless Multitude And The Gods. They Were The Carriers Of Flags Of Truce. At The Court Of Heaven They Presented The Cause Of Man, And Upon The Labor Of The Deceived They Lived.

As More People Become More Intelligent They Care Less For Preachers And More For Teachers.

Every Cradle Asks Us, Whence? And Every Coffin, Whither? The Poor Barbarian, Weeping Above His Dead, Can Answer These Questions As Intelligently As The Robed Priest Of The Most Authentic Creed.

Whoever Saw An Angel Barefooted?

They Say: Belief Is Important. I Say: No, Actions Are Important. Judge By Deed, Not By Creed.

To Me, The Most Obscene Word In Our Language Is Celibacy.

I Cannot See Why We Should Expect An Infinite God To Do Better In Another World Than He Does In This.

We Are Told In The Pentateuch, That God, The Father Of Us All, Gave Thousands Of Maidens, After Having Killed Their Fathers, Their Mothers, And Their Brothers, To Satisfy The Brutal Lusts Of Savage Men. If There Be A God, I Pray Him To Write In His Book, Opposite My Name, That I Denied This Lie For Him.

The Church Hates A Thinker Precisely For The Same Reason A Robber Dislikes A Sheriff, Or A Thief Despises The Prosecuting Witness.

The Savage Prays To A Stone That He Calls A God, While The Christian Prays To A God He Calls A Spirit, And The Prayers Of Both Are Equally Useful.

Intelligence, Guided By Kindness, Is The Highest Wisdom. . . .

The Church Says The Earth Is Flat. But I Know That It Is Round. For I Have Seen The Shadow On The Moon. And I Have More Faith In A Shadow Than In The Church.

There Is No Slavery But Ignorance.

My Heart Was Filled With Gratitude, With Thankfulness, And Went Out In Love To All The Heroes, The Thinkers Who Gave Their Lives For The Liberty Of Hand And Brain... To All The Wise, The Good, The Brave Of Every Land, Whose Thoughts And Deeds Have Given Freedom To The Sons Of Men. And Then I Vowed To Grasp The Torch That They Had Held, And Hold It High, That Light Might Conquer Darkness Still.

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."

The Careful Reader Of The New Testament Will Find Three Christs Described: - One Who Wished To Preserve Judaism - One Who Wished To Reform It, And One Who Built A System Of His Own

When A Man Really Believes That It Is Necessary To Do A Certain Thing To Be Happy Forever, Or That A Certain Belief Is Necessary To Ensure Eternal Joy, There Is In That Man No Spirit Of Concession. He Divides The Whole World Into Saints And Sinners, Into Believers And Unbelievers, Into God's Sheep And Devil's Goats, Into People Who Will Be Glorified And People Who Are Damned.

Our Civilization Is Not Christian. It Does Not Come From The Skies. It Is Not A Result Of Inspiration. It Is The Child Of Invention, Of Discovery, Of Applied Knowledge - That Is To Say, Of Science. When Man Becomes Great And Grand Enough To Admit That All Have Equal Rights; When Thought Is Untrammeled; When Worship Shall Consist In Doing Useful Things; When Religion Means The Discharge Of Obligations To Our Fellow-men, Then, And Not Until Then, Will The World Be Civilized.

As We Become Civilized We Are Governed Less By Persons And More By Principles. . . . The Best Of All Leaders Is The Man Who Teaches People To Lead Themselves.

I Do Not Believe That The Tendency Is To Make Men And Women Brave And Glorious When You Tell Them That There Are Certain Ideas Upon Certain Subjects That They Must Never Express; That They Must Go Through Life With A Pretence As A Shield; That Their Neighbors Will Think Much More Of Them If They Will Only Keep Still; And That Above All Is A God Who Despises One Who Honestly Expresses What He Believes.

The Greatest Test Of Courage On Earth Is To Bear Defeat Without Losing Heart.

Spirituality For The Most Part Is A Mask Worn By Idleness, Arrogance And Greed.

Crimes Were Committed To Punish Crimes, And Crimes Were Committed To Prevent Crimes. The World Has Been Filled With Prisons And Dungeons, With Chains And Whips, With Crosses And Gibbets, With Thumbscrews And Racks, With Hangmen And Heads-men — And Yet These Frightful Means And Instrumentalities Have Committed Far More Crimes Than They Have Prevented.... Ignorance, Filth, And Poverty Are The Missionaries Of Crime. As Long As Dishonorable Success Outranks Honest Effort — As Long As Society Bows And Cringes Before The Great Thieves, There Will Be Little Ones Enough To Fill The Jails.

Liberty Is The Breath Of Progress.

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.

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

Honest Investigation Is Utterly Impossible Within The Pale Of Any Church, For The Reason, That If You Think The Church Is Right You Will Not Investigate, And If You Think It Wrong, The Church Will Investigate You.

I Have No Reverence For Any Book That Teaches A Doctrine Contrary To My Reason; No Reverence For Any Book That Teaches A Doctrine Contrary To My Heart; And, No Matter How Old It Is, No Matter How Many Have Believed It, No Matter How Many Have Died On Account Of It, No Matter How Many Live For It, I Have No Reverence For That Book, And I Am Glad Of It.

The Churches Have No Confidence In Each Other. Why? Because They Are Acquainted With Each Other.

Positive Atheism

To Hate Man And Worship God Seems To Be The Sum Of All The Creeds.

For Myself, I Have But Little Confidence In Any Business, Or Enterprise, Or Investment, That Promises Dividends Only After The Death Of The Stockholders.

Diderot Took The Ground That, If Orthodox Religion Be True Christ Was Guilty Of Suicide. Having The Power To Defend Himself He Should Have Used It.

It Is Perfectly Delightful To Take Advantage Of The Conscientious Labors Of Those Who Go Through And Through Volume After Volume, Divide With Infinite Patience The Gold From The Dross, And Present Us With The Pure And Shining Coin. Such Men May Be Likened To Bees Who Save Us Numberless Journeys By Giving Us The Fruit Of Their Own.

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.

To Give Up Your Individuality Is To Annihilate Yourself.

The Man Who Finds A Truth Lights A Torch.

The Combined Wisdom And Genius Of All Mankind Cannot Possibly Conceive Of An Argument Against Liberty Of Thought.

It Is Told That The Great Angelo, In Decorating A Church, Painted Some Angels Wearing Sandals. A Cardinal Looking At The Picture Said To The Artist: Whoever Saw Angels With Sandals? Angelo Answered With Another Question: Whoever Saw An Angel Barefooted?

Colleges Are Places Where Pebbles Are Polished And Diamonds Are Dimmed.

If The Reason I Give Is A Good One, You Will Act Upon It. If It Is A Bad One I Cannot Make It Better By Piling Epithet Upon Epithet. There Is No Logic In Abuse; There Is No Argument In An Epithet.

There Are Treasures In Books That All The Money In The World Cannot Buy, But The Poorest Laborer Can Have For Nothing.

Civilization Has Gotten Further And Further From The So-called 'natural' Man, Who Uses All His Faculties: Perception, Invention, Improvisation.

How Any Human Being Ever Has Had The Impudence To Speak Against The Right To Speak, Is Beyond The Power Of My Imagination. Here Is A Man Who Speaks-who Exercises A Right That He, By His Speech, Denies. Can Liberty Go Further Than That? Is There Any Toleration Possible Beyond The Liberty To Speak Against Liberty-the Real Believer In Free Speech Allowing Others To Speak Against The Right To Speak?

He Raised His Hands, Not To Strike, But In Benediction. Lincoln Was The Grandest Figure Of The Fiercest Civil War. He Is The Gentlest Memory Of Our World.

When Struck On One Cheek To Turn The Other, Is Really Joining A Conspiracy To Secure The Triumph Of Brutality. To Agree Not To Resist Evil Is To Become An Accomplice Of All Injustice.

Music Expresses Feeling And Thought, Without Language; It Was Below And Before Speech, And It Is Above And Beyond All Words.

And Why Does This Same God Tell Me How To Raise My Children When He Had To Drown His?

The Old Man Has Been Long At The Fair. He Is Acquainted With The Jugglers At The Booths. His Curiosity Has Been Satisfied. He No Longer Cares For The Exceptional, The Monstrous, The Marvelous And Deformed. He Looks Through And Beyond The Gilding, The Glitter And Gloss, Not Only Of Things, But Of Conduct, Of Manners, Theories, Religions And Philosophies. He Sees Clearer. The Light No Longer Shines In His Eyes.

We All Know That Men In Moderate Circumstances Can Have Just As Comfortable Houses As The Richest, Just As Comfortable Clothing, Just As Good Food. They Can See Just As Fine Paintings, Just As Marvelous Statues, And They Can Hear Just As Good Music. They Can Attend The Same Theaters And The Same Operas. They Can Enjoy The Same Sunshine, And Above All, Can Love And Be Loved Just As Well As Kings And Millionaires.

The First Duty Of Man Is To Support Himself - To See To It That He Does Not Become A Burden. His Next Duty Is To Help Others If He Has A Surplus, And If He Really Believes They Deserve To Be Helped.

Not Only Are We Here To Protect The Public From Vicious Criminals In The Street But Also To Protect The Public From Harmful Ideas.

The Object Of All Education Should Be To Increase The Usefulness Of Man - Usefulness To Himself And Others.

No One Can Control His Own Opinion Or His Own Belief. My Belief Was Forced Upon Me By My Surroundings. I Am The Product Of All Circumstances That Have In Any Way Touched Me.

There Will Never Be A Generation Of Great Men Until There Has Been A Generation Of Free Women - Of Free Mothers.

As A Man Develops, He Places A Greater Value Upon His Own Rights. Liberty Becomes A Grander And Diviner Thing. As He Values His Own Rights He Begins To Value The Rights Of Others. And When All Men Give To All Others All The Rights They Claim For Themselves, This World Will Be Civilized.

Talent Has The Four Seasons: Spring, That Is To Say, The Sowing Of The Seeds; Summer, Growth; Autumn, The Harvest; Winter, Intellectual Death. But There Is Now And Then A Genius Who Has No Winter, And, No Matter How Many Years He May Live, On The Blossom Of His Thought No Snow Falls. Genius Has The Climate Of Perpetual Growth.

I Would Rather Smoke One Cigar Than Hear Two Sermons.

If There Is A God, There Should Be No Slaves.

If There Is A God

Great Virtues May Draw Attention From Defects, They Cannot Sanctify Them. A Pebble Surrounded By Diamonds Remains A Common Stone, And A Diamond Surrounded By Pebbles Is Still A Gem.

When The Will Defies Fear, When Duty Throws The Gauntlet Down To Fate, When Honor Scorns To Compromise With Death - That Is Heroism.

A Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

The Falling Leaf That Tells Of Autumn's Death Is, In A Subtler Sense, A Prophecy Of Spring.

I Do Not Believe In Loving Enemies; I Have Pretty Hard Work To Love My Friends. Neither Do I Believe In Revenge. No Man Can Afford To Keep The Viper Of Revenge In His Heart. But I Believe In Justice, In Self-defense.

Meekness Is The Mask Of Malice.

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.

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.

The Mechanic, When A Wheel Refuses To Turn, Never Thinks Of Dropping On His Knees And Asking The Assistance Of Some Divine Power. He Knows There Is A Reason. He Knows That Something Is Too Large Or Too Small; That There Is Something Wrong With His Machine; And He Goes To Work And He Makes It Larger Or Smaller, Here Or There, Until The Wheel Will Turn.

In My Judgment, The Deists Were All Successfully Answered. The God Of Nature Is Certainly As Bad As The God Of The Old Testament. It Is Only When We Discard The Idea Of A Deity, The Idea Of Cruelty Or Goodness In Nature, That We Are Able Ever To Bear With Patience The Ills Of Life. I Feel That I Am Neither A Favorite Nor A Victim. Nature Neither Loves Nor Hates Me.

The Only Evidence, So Far As I Know, About Another Life Is, First, That We Have No Evidence; And Secondly, That We Are Rather Sorry That We Have Not, And Wish We Had.

The Book, Called The Bible, Is Filled With Passages Equally Horrible, Unjust And Atrocious. This Is The Book To Be Read In Schools In Order To Make Our Children Loving, Kind And Gentle! This Is The Book They Wish To Be Recognized In Our Constitution As The Source Of All Authority And Justice!

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man.

The Rights Of Men And Women Should Be Equal And Sacred-marriage Should Be A Perfect Partnership.

Had He Been Willing To Live A Hypocrite, He Would Have Been Respectable, He At Least Could Have Died Surrounded By Other Hypocrites, And At His Death There Would Have Been An Imposing Funeral, With Miles Of Carriages, Filled With Hypocrites, And Above His Hypocritical Dust There Would Have Been A Hypocritical Monument Covered With Lies.

Liberty Sustains The Same Relation To Mind That Space Does To Matter.

If We Should Put God In The Constitution There Would Be No Room Left For Man.

Lincoln Was Not A Type. He Stands Alone - No Ancestors, No Fellows, No Successors.

The Hands That Help Are Better Far Than Lips That Pray.

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.

Years Should Not Be Devoted To The Acquisition Of Dead Languages Or To The Study Of History Which, For The Most Part, Is A Detailed Account Of Things That Never Occurred. It Is Useless To Fill The Individual With Dates Of Great Battles, With The Births And Deaths Of Kings. They Should Be Taught The Philosophy Of History, The Growth Of Nations, Of Philosophies, Theories, And, Above All, Of The Sciences.

Epithets Are Not Arguments. Abuse Does Not Persuade.

Millions Of Men Give All Their Energies, As Well As Their Very Souls, For The Acquisition Of Gold. And This Will Continue As Long As Society Is Ignorant Enough And Hypocritical Enough To Hold In High Esteem The Man Of Wealth Without The Slightest Regard To The Character Of The Man.

The Catholic Church Is A Thousand Times Better Than Your Protestant Church Upon That Question [of Damnation]. The Catholic Church Believes In Purgatory - That Is, A Place Where A Fellow Can Get A Chance To Make A Motion For A New Trial.

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