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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.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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Honest Investigation Is Utterly

Robert Green Ingersoll

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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.

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Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

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.

There Is More Real Devotional Feeling Summoned From The Temple Of The Mind By Great Music Than By Any Sermon Ever Delivered.

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.

In All Ages, Hypocrites, Called Priests, Have Put Crowns Upon The Heads Of Thieves, Called Kings.

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

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

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.

Too Much Doubt Is Better Than Too Much Credulity.

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.

Life Is A Narrow Vale Between The Cold And Barren Peaks Of Two Eternities. We Strive In Vain To Look Beyond The Heights. We Cry Aloud-and The Only Answer Is The Echo Of Our Wailing Cry. From The Voiceless Lips Of The Unreplying Dead There Comes No Word. But In The Night Of Death Hope Sees A Star And Listening Love Can Hear The Rustling Of A Wing.

Intellect, Without Heart, Is Infinitely Cruel. . . .

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

Making A Difference

If The Account Given In Genesis Is Really True, Ought We Not, After All, To Thank This Serpent? He Was The First Schoolmaster, The First Advocate Of Learning, The First Enemy Of Ignorance, The First To Whisper In Human Ears The Sacred Word Liberty, The Creator Of Ambition, The Author Of Modesty, Of Inquiry, Of Doubt, Of Investigation, Of Progress And Of Civilization.

Labor Is The Only Prayer That Nature Answers: It Is The Only Prayer That Deserves An Answer—good, Honest, Noble Work.

The Present Is The Necessary Product Of All The Past, The Necessary Cause Of All The Future.

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

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.

If There Is One Subject In This World Worthy Of Being Discussed, Worthy Of Being Understood, It Is The Question Of Intellectual Liberty. Without That, We Are Simply Painted Clay.

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.

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

Now The Struggle For Life Is So Sharp, Competition Is So Severe, That Few Men Can Succeed Who Carry A Useless Burden. The Businessmen Of Our Country Are Compelled To Lead Temperate Lives, Otherwise Their Credit Is Gone.

Blasphemy Is What An Old Dogma Screams At A New Truth.

The Church Demonstrated The Falsity And Folly Of Darwin's Theories By Showing That They Contradicted The Mosaic Account Of Creation, And Now That The Theories Of Darwin Having Been Fairly Established, The Church Says That The Mosaic Account Is True Because It Is In Harmony With Darwin. Now, If It Should Turn Out That Darwin Was Mistaken, What Then?

Give Any Orthodox Church The Power, And To-day They Would Punish Heresy With Whip, And Chain, And Fire. As Long As A Church Deems A Certain Belief Essential To Salvation, Just So Long It Will Kill And Burn If It Has The Power.

And What Is The Great Thing That The Stage Does? It Cultivates The Imagination. And . . . The Imagination Constitutes The Great Difference Between Human Beings. . . . The Imagination Is The Mother Of Pity, The Mother Of Generosity, The Mother Of Every Possible Virtue. It Is By The Imagination That You Are Enabled To Put Yourself In The Place Of Another.

I Have Not The Slightest Confidence In 'spiritual Manifestations.'

I Love To Think Of The Whole Universe Together As One Eternal Fact. I Love To Think That Everything Is Alive; That Crystallization Is Itself A Step Toward Joy. I Love To Think That When A Bud Bursts Into Blossom: It Feels A Thrill. I Love To Have The Universe Full Of Feeling And Full Of Joy, And Not Full Of Simple Dead, Inert Matter, Managed By An Old Bachelor For All Eternity.

I Am Simply In Favor Of Intellectual Hospitality-that Is All. You Come To Me With A New Idea. I Invite You Into The House. Let Us See What You Have. Let Us Talk It Over. If I Do Not Like Your Thought, I Will Bid It A Polite "good Day." If I Do Like It, I Will Say: "sit Down; Stay With Me, And Become A Part Of The Intellectual Wealth Of My World."

God Cannot Send To Eternal Pain A Man Who Has Done Something Toward Improving The Condition Of His Fellow-man. If He Can, I Had Rather Go To Hell Than To Heaven And Keep Company With Such A God.

If Priests Had Not Been Fond Of Mutton, Lambs Never Would Have Been Sacrified To God. Nothing Was Ever Carried To The Temple That The Priest Could Not Use, And It Always Happened That God Wanted What His Agents Liked.

It Cannot Be Too Often Repeated, That Truth Scorns The Assistance Of Miracle.

The Only Reason Why We Wish To Exchange Thoughts Is That We Are Different. If We Were All The Same, We Would Die Dumb. No Thought Would Be Expressed After We Found That Our Thoughts Were Precisely Alike. We Differ-our Thoughts Are Different. Therefore The Commerse That We Call Conversation.

According To The Celestial Multiplication Table, Once One Is Three, And Three Times One Is One, And According To Heavenly Subtraction If We Take Two From Three, Three Are Left. The Addition Is Equally Peculiar, If We Add Two To One We Have But One. Each One Is Equal To Himself And The Other Two.

I Will Not Attack Your Doctrines Nor Your Creeds If They Accord Liberty To Me. If They Hold Thought To Be Dangerous - If They Aver That Doubt Is A Crime, Then I Attack Them One And All, Because They Enslave The Minds Of Men.

If We Are Immortal, It Is A Fact Of Nature, And That Fact Does Not Depend On Bibles, On Christs, Priest, Or Creeds.

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.

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

There Is The Same Difference Between Talent And Genius That There Is Between A Stone Mason And A Sculptor

Reason, Observation, And Experience; The Holy Trinity Of Science.

Scientific Method

It Is Better To Deserve Without Receiving Than To Receive Without Deserving

With Soap, Baptism Is A Good Thing.

Certainly The Old Testament Does Not Teach Us That There Is Another Life, And Upon That Question Even The New Is Obscure And Vague. The Hunger Of The Heart Finds Only A Few Small And Scattered Crumbs. There Is Nothing Definite, Solid, And Satisfying. United With The Idea Of Immortality We Find The Absurdity Of The Resurrection. A Prophecy That Depends For Its Fulfillment Upon An Impossibility, Cannot Satisfy The Brain Or Heart.

We Must Remember That There Is A Great Difference Between A Myth And A Miracle. A Myth Is The Idealization Of A Fact. A Miracle Is The Counterfeit Of A Fact. There Is The Same Difference Between A Myth And A Miracle That There Is Between Fiction And Falsehood -- Between Poetry And Perjury. Miracles Belong To The Far Past And The Far Future. The Little Line Of Sand, Called The Present, Between The Seas, Belongs To Common Sense To The Natural.

Anger Is A Wind Which Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind.

Grant Others The Same Rights As You Claim For Yourself.

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

The Moment You Introduce A Despotism In The World Of Thought, You Succeed In Making Hypocrites - And You Get In Such A Position That You Never Know What Your Neighbor Thinks.

Ignorance Is The Worst Form Of Slavery. (paraphrased)

All Religion Is Slavery.

It Is With Men As With Other Things. The Mullein Needs Only A Year, But The Oak A Century, And The Greatest Men Are Those Who Have Continued To Grow As Long As They Have Lived.

Fear Is Religion, Courage Is Science.

The Triumph Of Justice Is The Only Peace.

If We Are Immortal It Is A Fact In Nature, And We Are Not Indebted To Priests For It, Nor To Bibles For It, And It Cannot Be Destroyed By Unbelief.

Tell Me There Is A God In The Serene Heavens That Will Damn His Children For The Expression Of An Honest Belief! More Men Have Died In Their Sins, Judged By Your Orthodox Creeds, Than There Are Leaves In All The Forests In The Wide World Ten Thousand Times Over. Tell Me These Men Are In Hell; That These Men Are In Torment; That These Children Are In Eternal Pain, And That They Are To Be Punished Forever And Forever! I Denounce This Doctrine As The Most Infamous Of Lies.

When Passions And Appetites Are Stronger Than The Intellect, Men Are Savages; When The Intellect Governs The Passions, When The Passions Are Servants, Men Are Civilized. The People Need Education - Facts - Philosophy.

A Mule Has Neither Pride Of Ancestry Nor Hope Of Posterity.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

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.

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.

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

Nothing Is Greater Than To Break The Chains From The Bodies Of Men, Nothing Nobler Than To Destroy The Phantom Of The Soul.

To Avoid Pain We Must Know The Conditions Of Health. For The Accomplishment Of This End We Must Rely Upon Investigation Instead Of Faith, Upon Labor In Place Of Prayer. Most Misery Is Produced By Ignorance. Passions Sow The Seeds Of Pain.

The Old Testament Filled This World With Tyranny And Injustice, And The New Gives Us A Future Filled With Pain For Nearly All Of The Sons Of Men. The Old Testament Describes The Hell Of The Past, And The New The Hell Of The Future.

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.

It Is An Old Habit With Theologians To Beat The Living With The Bones Of The Dead.

Of Course, Ministers Look Upon Theaters As Rival Attractions, And Most Of Their Hatred Is Born Of Business Views. They Think People Ought To Be Driven To Church By Having All Other Places Closed. In My Judgment The Theater Has Done Good, While The Church Has Done Harm. The Drama Never Has Insisted Upon Burning Anybody. Persecution Is Not Born Of The Stage.

Environment Is A Sculptor - A Painter. If We Had Been Born In Constantinople, Then Most Of Us Would Have Said: 'there Is No God But Allah, And Mohammed Is His Prophet.' If Our Parents Had Lived On The Banks Of The Ganges, We Would Have Been Worshipers Of Siva, Longing For The Heaven Of Nirvana. As A Rule, Children Love Their Parents, Believe What They Teach, And Take Great Pride In Saying That The Religion Of Mother Is Good Enough For Them.

I Am Going To Put The Bible Out Of Business.

I Have One Sentiment For Soldiers Living And Dead: Cheers For The Living; Tears For The Dead.

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.

All Of The Ten Commandments That Are Good Were Old; All That Were New Art Foolish. If Jehovah Had Been Civilized He Would Have Left Out The Commandment About Keeping The Sabbath, And In Its Place Would Have Said: "thou Shalt Not Enslave Thy Fellow-men." He Would Have Omitted The One About Swearing, And Said: "the Man Shall Have But One Wife, And The Woman But One Husband." He Would Have Left Out The One About Graven Images, And In Its Stead Would Have Said: "thou Shalt Not Wage Wars Of Extermination, And Thou Shalt Not Unsheathe The Sword Except In Self-defence.

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.

Cruelty Hardens And Degrades, Kindness Reforms And Ennobles.

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.

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.

Jehovah Was Not A Moral God. He Had All The Vices And He Lacked All The Virtues. He Generally Carried Out All His Threats, But He Never Faithfully Kept A Promise.

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.

Creationists Use Facts The Same Way A Drunk Uses A Lightpost: For Support Instead Of Illumination

Above All Things, One Should Maintain His Self-respect, And There Is But One Way To Do That, And That Is To Live In Accordance With Your Highest Ideal.

Superstition Is, Always Has Been, And Forever Will Be, The Foe Of Progress, The Enemy Of Education And The Assassin Of Freedom.

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

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.

If Cathedrals Had Been Universities If Dungeons Of The Inquisition Had Been Laboratories If Christians Had Believed In Character Instead Of Creed If They Had Taken From The Bible Only That Which Is Good And Thrown Away The Wicked And Absurd If Temple Domes Had Been Observatories If Priests Had Been Philosophers If Missionaries Had Taught Useful Arts Instead Of Bible Lore If Astrology Had Been Astronomy If The Black Arts Had Been Chemistry If Superstition Had Been Science If Religion Had Been Humanity The World Then Would Be A Heaven Filled With Love, And Liberty And Joy

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

I Would Rather Be A Beggar And Spend My Money Like A King, Than Be A King And Spend Money Like A Beggar.

What Has Religion To Do With Facts? Nothing.

Christianity Has Such A Contemptible Opinion Of Human Nature That It Does Not Believe A Man Can Tell The Truth Unless Frightened By A Belief In God. No Lower Opinion Of The Human Race Has Ever Been Expressed.

I Admit That Reason Is A Small And Feeble Flame, A Flickering Torch By Stumblers Carried In The Star-less Night, - Blown And Flared By Passion's Storm, - And Yet, It Is The Only Light. Extinguish That, And Nought Remains.

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

An Infinite Personality Is An Infinite Impossibility.

The Doctrine Of Eternal Punishment Is In Perfect Harmony With The Savagery Of The Men Who Made The Orthodox Creeds. It Is In Harmony With Torture, With Flaying Alive, And With Burnings.

Injustice Upon Earth Renders The Justice Of Of Heaven Impossible.

For Ages, A Deadly Conflict Has Been Waged Between A Few Brave Men And Women Of Thought And Genius Upon The One Side, And The Great Ignorant Religious Mass On The Other. This Is The War Between Science And Faith. The Few Have Appealed To Reason, To Honor, To Law, To Freedom, To The Known, And To Happiness Here In This World. The Many Have Appealed To Prejudice, To Fear, To Miracle, To Slavery, To The Unknown, And To Misery Hereafter. The Few Have Said "think" The Many Have Said "believe!"

We Are All Children Of The Same Mother, And The Same Fate Awaits Us All. We, Too, Have Our Religion, And It Is This: Help For The Living-hope For The Dead.

Let Us Agree Not To Step On Each Other’s Feet.

There Can Be But Little Liberty On Earth While Men Worship A Tyrant In Heaven.

In The Search For Truth - That Everything In Nature Seems To Hide - Man Needs The Assistance Of All His Faculties. All The Senses Should Be Awake.

Orthodox Christians Have The Habit Of Claiming All Great Men, All Men Who Have Held Important Positions, Men Of Reputation, Men Of Wealth. As Soon As The Funeral Is Over Clergymen Begin To Relate Imaginary Conversations With The Deceased, And In A Very Little While The Great Man Is Changed To A Christian - Possibly To A Saint.

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

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.

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."

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.

The Man Who Finds A Truth Lights A Torch.

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

The Laboring People Should Unite And Should Protect Themselves Against All Idlers. You Can Divide Mankind Into Two Classes: The Laborers And The Idlers, The Supporters And The Supported, The Honest And The Dishonest. Every Man Is Dishonest Who Lives Upon The Unpaid Labor Of Others, No Matter If He Occupies A Throne. All Laborers Should Be Brothers.

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.

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

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

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

He Loves His Country Best Who Strives To Make It Best.

A Mortgage Casts A Shadow On The Sunniest Field.

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 History Of The World Shows That When A Mean Thing Was Done, Man Did It; When A Good Thing Was Done, Man Did It.

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.

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

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.

The Inventor Of The Plow Did More Good Than The Maker Of The First Rosary - Because, Say What You Will, Plowing Is Better Than Praying.

All Religious Systems Enslave The Mind. Certain Things Are Demanded-certain Things Must Be Believed-certain Things Must Be Done-and The Man Who Becomes The Subject Or Servant Of This Superstition Must Give Up All Idea Of Indivuality Or Hope Of Intellectual Growth Or Progress.

At Thirty Most Men Have Prejudices Rather Than Opinions-that Is To Say, Rather Than Judgments-and Few Men Have Lived To Be Sixty Without Materially Modifying The Opinions They Held At Thirty.

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.

If I Owe Smith Ten Dollars And God Forgives Me, That Doesn't Pay Smith.

The Catholics Have A Pope. Protestants Laugh At Them, And Yet The Pope Is Capable Of Intellectual Advancement. In Addition To This, The Pope Is Mortal, And The Church Cannot Be Afflicted With The Same Idiot Forever. The Protestants Have A Book For Their Pope. The Book Cannot Advance. Year After Year, And Century After Century, The Book Remains As Ignorant As Ever.

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.

On Every Hand There Seems To Be Design To Defeat Design. If God Created Man - If He Is The Father Of Us All, Why Did He Make The Criminals, The Insane, The Deformed And Idiotic? Should The Mother, Who Clasps To Her Breast An Idiot Child, Thank God?

Darwin Has Done More To Change Human Thought Than All The Priests Who Have Existed.

If Upon This Earth We Ever Have A Glimpse Of Heaven,it Is When We Pass A Home In Winter, At Night,and Through The Windows, The Curtains Drawn Aside,we See The Family About The Pleasant Hearth; The Old Lady Knitting; The Cat Playing With The Yarn;the Children Wishing They Had As Many Dolls Or Dollars Or Knivesor Somethings, As There Are Sparks Going Out To Join The Roaring Blast;the Father Reading And Smoking, And The Clouds Rising Like Incense From The Altar Of Domestic Joy.i Never Passed Such A House Without Feeling Thati Had Received A Benediction.

Let Us Put Theology Out Of Religion. Theology Has Always Sent The Worst To Heaven, The Best To Hell.

Religion Is One Of The Phases Of Thought Through Which The World Is Passing.

Theology Is Not What We Know About God, But What We Do Not Know About Nature.

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

I Am Not So Much For The Freedom Of Religion As I Am For The Religion Of Freedom.

Freedom Of Religion

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.

The Church Teaches Us That We Can Make God Happy By Being Miserable Ourselves.

The True Civilization Is Where Every Man Gives To Every Other Every Right That He Claims For Himself.

Not One Of The Orthodox Ministers Dare Preach What He Thinks If He Knows A Majority Of His Congregation Think Otherwise. He Knows That Every Member Of His Church Stands Guard Over His Brain With A Creed, Like A Club, In His Hand. He Knows That He Is Not Expected To Search After The Truth, But That He Is Employed To Defend The Creed. Every Pulpit Is A Pillory, In Which Stands A Hired Culprit, Defending The Justice Of His Own Imprisonment.

Nothing Could Be More Dangerous To The Existence Of This Republic Than To Introduce Religion Into Politics

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.

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

It Has Always Seemed To Me That A Being Coming From Another World, With A Message Of Infinite Importance To Mankind, Should At Least Have Verified That Message By His Own Signature. Is It Not Wonderful That Not One Word Was Written By Christ?

Reason Is The Light, The Sun Of The Brain. It Is The Compass Of The Mind, The Ever-constant Northern Star, The Mountain Peak That Lifts Itself Above All Clouds.

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

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

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.

Every Child Should Be Taught That Useful Work Is Worship And That Intelligent Labor Is The Highest Form Of Prayer.

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.

When A Fact Can Be Demonstrated, Force Is Unnecessary; When It Cannot Be Demonstrated, Force Is Infamous.

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

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

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

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

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.

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

I Am A Believer In Liberty . That Is My Religion To Give To Every Other Human Being Every Right That I Claim For Myself, And I Grant To Every Other Human Being, Not The Right Because It Is His Right But Instead Of Granting I Declare That It Is His Right, To Attack Every Doctrine That I Maintain, To Answer Every Argument That I May Urge In Other Words, He Must Have Absolute Freedom Of Speech.

Freedom Of Speech

We Can Be As Honest As We Are Ignorant. If We Are, When Asked What Is Beyond The Horizon Of The Known, We Must Say That We Do Not Know.

Liberty Is The Breath Of Progress.

A Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

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.

If The Bible And My Brain Are Both The Work Of The Same Infinite God, Whose Fault Is It That The Book And My Brain Do Not Agree?

But Honest Men Do Not Pretend To Know; They Are Candid And Sincere; They Love The Truth; They Admit Their Ignorance, And They Say, We Do Not Know.

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.

No One Infers A God From The Simple, From The Known, From What Is Understood, But From The Complex, From The Unknown, And Incomprehensible. Our Ignorance Is God; What We Know Is Science.

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.

The Intellectual Advancement Of Man Depends On How Often He Can Exchange An Old Superstition For A New Truth.

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

Life Is A Narrow Vale Between The Cold And Barren Peaks Of Two Eternities. We Strive In Vain To Look Beyond The Heights. We Cry Aloud

No Man Should Kill Himself As Long As He Can Be Of The Least Use To Anybody, And If You Cannot Find Some Person That You Are Willing To Do Something For, Find A Good Dog And Take Care Of Him. You Have No Idea How Much Better You Will Feel.

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.

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

No One, In The World's Whole History, Ever Attempted To Substantiate A Truth By A Miracle. Truth Scorns The Assistance Of Miracle. Nothing But Falsehood Ever Attested Itself By Signs And Wonders. No Miracle Ever Was Performed, And No Sane Man Ever Thought He Had Performed One, And Until One Is Performed, There Can Be No Evidence Of The Existence Of Any Power Superior To, And Independent Of Nature.

I Have Had Some Trouble In Regarding Evil As Having Been Intended By Infinite Goodness.

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

Everyone Should Be Taught The Nobility Of Labor, The Heroism And Splendor Of Honest Effort. As Long As It Is Considered Disgraceful To Labor, Or Aristocratic Not To Labor, The World Will Be Filled With Idleness And Crime, And With Every Possible Moral Deformity.

He Who Commends The Brutalities Of The Past, Sows The Seeds Of Future Crimes.

...in Every Religion The Priest Insists On Five Things - First: There Is A God. Second: He Has Made Known His Will. Third: He Has Selected Me To Explain This Message. Fourth: We Will Now Take Up A Collection; And Fifth: Those Who Fail To Subscribe Will Certainly Be Damned.

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.

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.

No Man With A Sense Of Humor Ever Founded A Religion.

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.

They Knew No Better, But I Do Not Propose To Follow The Example Of A Barbarian Because He Was Honestly A Barbarian.

The Meanest Hut With Love In It Is A Palace Fit For The Gods, And A Palace Without Love Is A Den Only Fit For Wild Beasts.

I Am The Inferior Of Any Man Whose Rights I Trample Under Foot. Men Are Not Superior By Reason Of Accidents Of Race Or Color. They Are Superior Who Have The Best Heart-the Best Brain.

Intelligence Is The Only Moral Guide.

The Old Lady Who Said There Must Be A Devil, Else How Could They Make Pictures That Looked Exactly Like Him, Reasoned Like A Trained Theologian - Like A Doctor Of Divinity.

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.

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

The Clergy Know That I Know That They Know That They Do Not Know.

Positive Atheism

Liberty A Word Without Which All Other Words Are Vain.

We Have At Last Ascertained That Miracles Can Be Perfectly Understood; That There Is Nothing Mysterious About Them; That They Are Simply Transparent Falsehoods.

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

Upon The Great Questions Of Origin, Of Destiny, Of Immortality, Of . . . Other Worlds, Every Honest Man Must Say, 'i Do Not Know.' Upon These Questions, This Is The Creed Of Intelligence.

It Is Hard To Overstate The Debt We Owe To The Men And Women Of Genius.

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

You Cannot Be So Poor That You Cannot Help Somebody.

An Infinite God Ought To Be Able To Protect Himself, Without Going In Partnership With State Legislatures. Certainly He Ought Not So To Act That Laws Become Necessary To Keep Him From Being Laughed At. No One Thinks Of Protecting Shakespeare From Ridicule, By The Threat Of Fine And Imprisonment.

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.

I Would Rather Live With The Woman I Love In A World Full Of Trouble, Than To Live In Heaven With Nobody But Men.

I Would Have All The Professors In Colleges, All The Teachers In Schools Of Every Kind, Including Those In Sunday Schools, Agree That They Would Teach Only What They Know, That They Would Not Palm Off Guesses As Demonstrated Truths.

The Way To Be Happy Is To Make Others So.

The Ideas Of Right And Wrong Change With The Experience Of The Race, And This Change Is Wrought By The Gradual Ascertaining Of Consequences - Of Results.

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