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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.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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I Do Not Believe

Robert Green Ingersoll

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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.

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

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

Love Is The Magician, The Enchanter, That Changes Worthless Things To Joy, And Makes Right Royal Kings And Queens Of Common Clay. It Is The Perfume Of That Wondrous Flower, The Heart, And Without That Sacred Passion, That Divine Swoon, We Are Less Than Beasts; But With It, Earth Is Heaven, And We Are Gods.

For The First Time I Understood The Dogma Of Eternal Pain... For The First Time My Imagination Grasped The Height And Depth Of The Christian Horror. Then I Said: "it Is A Lie, And I Hate Your Religion. If It Is True, I Hate Your God." From That Day I Have Had No Fear, No Doubt. For Me, On That Day, The Flames Of Hell Were Quenched. From That Day I Have Passionately Hated Every Orthodox Creed. That Sermon Did Some Good.

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

An Infinite Personality Is An Infinite Impossibility.

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

Even In The Business Of Corporations Honesty Is The Best Policy, And The Companies That Have Acted In Accordance With The Highest Standard, Other Things Being Equal, Have Reaped The Richest Harvest.

Nothing Could Add To The Horror Of Hell, Except The Presence Of Its Creator, God.

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!"

Only A Few Years Ago There Was No Person Too Ignorant To Successfully Answer Charles Darwin; And The More Ignorant He Was The More Cheerfully He Undertook The Task.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

It Is A Blessed Thing That In Every Age Some One Has Had Individuality Enough And Courage Enough To Stand By His Own Convictions, -- Some One Who Had The Grandeur To Say His Say. I Believe It Was Magellan Who Said, The Church Says The Earth Is Flat; But I Have Seen Its Shadow On The Moon, And I Have More Confidence Even In A Shadow Than In The Church. On The Prow Of His Ship Were Disobedience, Defiance, Scorn, And Success.

Secularism Is A Religion, A Religion That Is Understood. It Has No Mysteries, No Mumblings, No Priests, No Ceremonies, No Falsehoods, No Miracles, And No Persecutions.

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.

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

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!

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

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

Instead Of Loving A God, We Love Each Other. Instead Of The Religion Of The Sky-the Religion Of This World-the Religion Of The Family-the Love Of Husband For Wife, Of Wife For Husband-the Love Of All For Children. So That Now The Real Religion Is: Let Us Live For Each Other; Let Us Live For This World Without Regard For The Past And Without Fear For The Future. Let Us Use Our Faculties And Our Powers For The Benefit Of Ourselves And Others, Knowing That If There Be Another World, The Same Philosophy That Gives Us Joy Here Will Make Us Happy There.

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.

Take The Word Liberty From Human Speech And All The Other Words Become Poor, Withered, Meaningless Sounds - But With That Word Realized - With That Word Understood, The World Becomes A Paradise.

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.

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... In The New Testament, Death Is Not The End, But The Beginning Of Punishment That Has No End. In The New Testament The Malice Of God Is Infinite And The Hunger Of His Revenge Eternal... This Frightful Dogma, This Infinite Lie, Made Me The Implacable Enemy Of Christianity. The Truth Is That This Belief In Eternal Pain Has Been The Real Persecutor.

Do Not Trust Those In Whom The Compulsion To Punish Is Strong.

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.

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

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?

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

God So Loved The World That He Made Up His Mind To Damn A Large Majority Of The Human Race.

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.

When Your Little Child Tells A Lie, Do Not Rush At Him As Though The World Were About To Go Into Bankruptcy. Be Honest With Him. A Tyrant Father Will Have Liars For His Children; Do You Know That? A Lie Is Born Of Tyranny Upon The One Hand And Weakness Upon The Other, And When You Rush At A Poor Little Boy With A Club In Your Hand, Of Course He Lies.

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

Religion Can Never Reform Mankind Because Religion Is Slavery.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My Objection To Christianity Is That It Is Infinitely Cruel, Infinitely Selfish, And, I Might Add, Infinitely Absurd.

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.

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.

A Good Deed Is The Best Prayer.

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.

No Man Has A Right To Leave His Wife To Fight The Battle Alone If He Is Able To Help. No Man Has A Right To Desert His Children If He Can Possibly Be Of Use. As Long As He Can Add To The Comfort Of Those He Loves, As Long As He Can . . . Be Of Any Use, It Is His Duty To Remain.

I Want No Heaven For Which I Must Give My Reason; No Happiness In Exchange For My Liberty, And No Immortality That Demands The Surrender Of My Individuality. Better Rot In The Windowless Tomb, To Which There Is No Door But The Red Mouth Of The Pallid Worm, Than To Wear The Jeweled Collar Of A God.

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

In The Night Of Death, Hope Sees A Star, And Listening Love Can Hear The Rustle Of A Wing.

It Is A Splendid Thing To Think That The Woman You Really Love Will Never Grow Old To You. Through The Wrinkles Of Time, Through The Mask Of Years, If You Really Love Her, You Will Always See The Face You Love And Won. And A Woman Who Really Loves A Man Does Not See That He Grows Old; He Is Not Decrepit To Her; She Always Sees The Same Gallant Gentleman Who Won Her Hand And Heart.

Sacred Are The Lips From Which Has Issued Only Truth.

Think Of The Egotism Of A Man Who Believes That An Infinite Being Wants His Praise!

The Old Doctrine That God Wanted Man To Do Something For Him, And That He Kept A Watchful Eye Upon All The Children Of Men; That He Rewarded The Virtuous And Punished The Wicked, Is Gradually Fading From The Mind. We Know That Some Of The Worst Men Have What The World Calls Success. We Know That Some Of The Best Men Lie Upon The Straw Of Failure. We Know That Honesty Goes Hungry, While Larceny Sits At The Banquet. We Know That The Vicious Have Every Physical Comfort, While The Virtuous Are Often Clad In Rags.

Good Nature Is The Cheapest Commodity In The World.

The Only Thing That Makes Life Endurable In This World Is Human Love, And Yet, According To Christianity, That Is The Very Thing That We Are Not To Have In The Other World. We Are To Be So Taken Up With Jesus And Angels, That We Shall Care Nothing About Our Brothers And Sisters That Have Been Damned. We Shall Be So Carried Away With The Music Of The Harp That We Shall Not Even Hear The Wail Of Father And Mother. Such A Religion Is A Disgrace To Human Nature.

Hope Is The Only Universal Liar Who Never Loses His Reputation For Veracity.

This, In My Judgment, Is The Highest Philosophy: First, Do Not Regret Having Lost Yesterday; Second, Do Not Fear That You Will Lose Tomorrow; Third, Enjoy Today.

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 Rather That We All Should Go To Eternal Chaos, To Black And Starless Night, Than That Just One Soul Should Suffer Eternal Agony.

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

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

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

Why Should We Postpone Our Joy To Another World? Let Us Get All We Can Of The Good Between The Cradle And The Grave, All That We Can Of The Truly Dramatic. If, When Death Comes, That Is The End, We Have At Least Made The Best Of This Life.

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.

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.

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

Arguments Cannot Be Answered By Personal Abuse; There Is No Logic In Slander, And Falsehood, In The Long Run, Defeats Itself.

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

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.

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

Small People Delight In What They Call Consistency-that Is, It Gives Them Immense Pleasure To Say That They Believe Now Exactly As They Did Ten Years Ago. This Simply Amounts To A Certificate That They Have Not Grown-that They Have Not Developed-and That They Know Just As Little Now As They Ever Did. The Highest Possible Conception Of Consistency Is To Be True To The Knowledge Of Today, Without The Slightest Reference To What Your Opinion Was Years Ago.

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.

If I Had My Way I'd Make Health Catching Instead Of Disease.

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

There Is No Evidence That God Ever Interfered In The Affairs Of Man. The Hand Of Earth Is Stretched Uselessly Towards Heaven. From The Clouds There Comes No Help.

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.

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.

All Religions Are Inconsistent With Mental Freedom. Shakespeare Is My Bible, Burns My Hymn-book.

I Found That The Clergy Did Not Understand Their Own Book.

The History Of Intellectual Progress Is Written In The Lives Of Infidels.

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

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

Only The Very Ignorant Are Perfectly Satisfied That They Know. To The Common Man The Great Problems Are Easy. He Has No Trouble In Accounting For The Universe. He Can Tell You The Origin And Destiny Of Man And The Why And Wherefore Of Things.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man.

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

The Inspiration Of The Bible Depends Upon The Ignorance Of The Gentleman Who Reads It.

They Who Stand With Breaking Hearts Around This Little Grave, Need Have No Fear. The Larger And The Nobler Faith In All That Is, And Is To Be, Tells Us That Death, Even At Its Worst, Is Only Perfect Rest ... The Dead Do Not Suffer.

All Religion Is Slavery.

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 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.

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

Justice For All

If The Property Belongs To God He Is Able To Pay The Tax.

It Seems To Me That If There Is Some Infinite Being Who Wants Us To Think Alike He Would Have Made Us Alike.

Every Library Is An Arsenal.

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.

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!

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.

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?

So, Ministers Say That They Teach Charity. This Is Natural. They Live On Alms. All Beggars Teach That Others Should Give.

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.

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

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

If I Go To Heaven I Want To Take My Reason With Me.

Love Is Natural. Back Of Allceremony Burns And Will Forever Burn The Sacred Flame. There Has Been No Time In The World's History When That Torch Was Extinguished. In All Ages, In All Climes, Among All People, There Has Been True, Pure, And Unselfish Love.

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 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.

One Thing I Do Know, And That Is, That Neither Hope, Nor Fear, Belief, Nor Denial, Can Change The Fact. It Is As It Is, And It Will Be As It Must Be.

There Is No Slavery But Ignorance.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Justice, Poised And Balanced In Eternal Calm, Will Shake From The Golden Scales In Which Are Weighed The Acts Of Men, The Very Dust Of Prejudice And Caste: No Race, No Color, No Previous Condition, Can Change The Rights Of Men.

They Knew That It Was Necessary To Believe These Things And To Love God. They Knew That There Could Be No Salvation Except By Faith, And Through The Atoning Blood Of Jesus Christ.

Science Built The Academy, Superstition The Inquisition.

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.

The Man Who Invented The Telescope Found Out More About Heaven Than The Closed Eyes Of Prayer Ever Discovered.

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

All Prayers Die In The Air Which They Uselessly Agitate.

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.

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.

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.

Prayer Is Of No Avail. The Lightning Falls On The Just And The Unjust In Accordance With Natural Laws.

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.

Do Right, Not To Deny Yourself But Because You Love Yourself And Because You Love Others.

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!

To The Wise Man, To The Wise Nation, The Mistakes Of The Past Are The Torches Of The Present.

He Who Treats His Friends And Enemies Alike, Has Neither Love Nor Justice.

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.

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."

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

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

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.

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?

Orthodoxy Cannot Afford To Put Out The Fires Of Hell.

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.

Infidels In All Ages Have Battled For The Rights Of Man, And Have At All Times Been The Fearless Advocates Of Liberty And Justice.

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

One Man In The Right Will Finally Get To Be A Majority.

I Don't Want To Hurt People's Feelings If I Can Help It. I Don't Want Anyone Unnecessarily Humiliated, But I Say Whatever Stands Between You And Justice Must Give Way; And If You Have To Walk Over Reputations — And If They Become Pavement You Cannot Help It.

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

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.

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

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.

It Has Always Seemed Absurd To Suppose That A God Would Choose For His Companions, During All Eternity, The Dear Souls Whose Highest And Only Ambition Is To Obey.

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

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

I Want It So That Every Minister Will Be Not A Parrot, Not An Owl Sitting Upon A Dead Limb Of The Tree Of Knowledge And Hooting The Hoots That Have Been Hooted For Eighteen Hundred Years. But I Want It So That Each One Can Be An Investigator, A Thinker; And I Want To Make His Congregation Grand Enough So That They Will Not Only Allow Him To Think, But Will Demand That He Shall Think, And Give To Them The Honest Truth Of His Thought.

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?

Every Pulpit Is A Pillory, In Which Stands A Hired Culprit, Defending The Justice Of His Own Imprisonment.

In The Republic Of Mediocrity, Genius Is Dangerous.

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

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

I Believe In The Gospel Of Cheerfulness, The Gospel Of Good Nature; The Gospel Of Good Health. Let Us Pay Some Attention To Our Bodies. Take Care Of Our Bodies, And Our Souls Will Take Care Of Themselves.

Injustice Upon Earth Renders The Justice Of Of Heaven Impossible.

A Mortgage Casts A Shadow On The Sunniest Field.

The Agnostic Does Not Simply Say, "l Do Not Know." He Goes Another Step, And He Says, With Great Emphasis, That You Do Not Know. He Insists That You Are Trading On The Ignorance Of Others, And On The Fear Of Others. He Is Not Satisfied With Saying That You Do Not Know, -- He Demonstrates That You Do Not Know, And He Drives You From The Field Of Fact -- He Drives You From The Realm Of Reason -- He Drives You From The Light, Into The Darkness Of Conjecture -- Into The World Of Dreams And Shadows, And He Compels You To Say, At Last, That Your Faith Has No Foundation In Fact.

Whoever Increases The Sum Of Human Joy, Is A Worshiper. He Who Adds To The Sum Of Human Misery, Is A Blasphemer.

The Priests Of One Religion Never Credit The Miracles Of Another Religion. Is This Because Priests Instinctively Know Priests?

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

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 Bulling The Enlightened Present.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

Love Is The Only Bow On Life's Dark Cloud. It Is The Morning And The Evening Star. It Shines Upon The Cradle Of The Babe, And Sheds Its Radiance On The Quiet Tomb. It Is The Mother Of Art—inspirer Of Poet, Patriot, And Philosopher. It Is The Air And Light Of Every Heart— Builder Of Every Home—kindler Of Every Fire On Every Hearth. It Was The First To Dream Of Immortality. It Fills The World With Melody, For Music Is The Voice Of Love.

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.

Death Is Only Perfect Rest.

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.

With Soap, Baptism Is A Good Thing.

No God Can Put A Man In Hell In Another World, Who Has Made A Little Heaven In This. God Cannot Make A Man Miserable If That Man Has Made Somebody Else Happy.

All Should Be Taught That The Highest Ambition Is To Be Happy, And To Add To The Well-being Of Others; That Place And Power Are Not Necessary To Success; That The Desire To Acquire Great Wealth Is A Kind Of Insanity. They Should Be Taught That It Is A Waste Of Energy, A Waste Of Thought, A Waste Of Life, To Acquire What You Do Not Need And What You Do Not Really Use For The Benefit Of Yourself Or Others.

Fear Is A Dagger With Which Hypocrisy Assassinates The Soul.

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.

Mental Slavery Is Mental Death, And Every Man Who Has Given Up His Intellectual Freedom Is The Living Coffin Of His Dead Soul.

In Nature There Are Neither Rewards Nor Punishments; There Are Consequences.

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

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.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

A False Friend, An Unjust Judge, A Braggart, Hypocrite, And Tyrant, Sincere In Hatred, Jealous, Vain And Revengeful, False In Promise, Honest In Curse, Suspicious, Ignorant, Infamous And Hideous-such Is The God Of The Pentateuch.

If A Man Really Believes That God Once Upheld Slavery; That He Commanded Soldiers To Kill Women And Babes; That He Believed In Polygamy; That He Persecuted For Opinion's Sake; That He Will Punish Forever, And That He Hates An Unbeliever, The Effect In My Judgment Will Be Bad. It Always Has Been Bad. This Belief Built The Dungeons Of The Inquisition. This Belief Made The Puritan Murder The Quaker.

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

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