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Just To The Extent That The Bible Was Appealed To In Matters Of Science, Science Was Retarded; And Just To The Extent That Science Has Been Appealed To In Matters Of Religion, Religion Has Advanced - So That Now The Object Of Intelligent Religionists Is To Adopt A Creed That Will Bear The Test And Criticism Of Science.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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Just To The Extent

Robert Green Ingersoll

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Just To The Extent That The Bible Was Appealed To In Matters Of Science, Science Was Retarded; And Just To The Extent That Science Has Been Appealed To In Matters Of Religion, Religion Has Advanced - So That Now The Object Of Intelligent Religionists Is To Adopt A Creed That Will Bear The Test And Criticism Of Science.

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Labor Is The Only Prayer That Nature Answers.

Happiness Is Not A Reward - It Is A Consequence. Suffering Is Not A Punishment - It Is A Result.

Orthodoxy Cannot Afford To Put Out The Fires Of Hell.

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.

Heresy Is A Cradle; Orthodoxy A Coffin.

Good Nature Is The Cheapest Commodity In The World.

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

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.

I Belong To The Great Church Which Holds The World Within Its Starlit Aisles; That Claims The Great And Good Of Every Race And Clime; That Finds With Joy The Grain Of Gold In Every Creed, And Floods With Light And Love The Germs Of Good In Every Soul.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing Discloses Real Character Like The Use Of Power.

We Are Not Accountable For The Sins Of "adam".

If We Have The Right To Use Our Reason, We Certainly Have The Right To Act In Accordance With It, And No God Can Have The Right To Punish Us For Such Action

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.

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.

I Believe In The Religion Of Reason -- The Gospel Of This World; In The Development Of The Mind, In The Accumulation Of Intellectual Wealth, To The End That Man May Free Himself From Superstitious Fear, To The End That He May Take Advantage Of The Forces Of Nature To Feed And Clothe The World.

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.

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.

Blasphemy Is An Epithet Bestowed By Superstition Upon Common Sense.

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.

In The Republic Of Mediocrity, Genius Is Dangerous.

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

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.

As A Matter Of Fact, No One Knows That God Exists And No One Knows That God Does Not Exist. To My Mind There Is No Evidence That God Exists - That This World Is Governed By A Being Of Infinite Goodness, Wisdom And Power, But I Do Not Pretend To Know.

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

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

Only Those Who Live On The Labor Of The Ignorant Are The Enemies Of Science. Real Love And Real Religion Are In No Danger From Science. The More We Know The Safer All Good Things Are.

Meekness Is The Mask Of Malice.

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.

The Triumph Of Justice Is The Only Peace.

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.

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

As Far As I Am Concerned I Wish To Be Out On The High Seas. I Wish To Take My Chances With Wind, And Wave, And Star. And I Had Rather Go Down In The Glory And Grandeur Of The Storm, Than Rot In Any Orthodox Harbor.

A Good Deed Is The Best Prayer.

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

The Idea That There Is A God Who Rewards And Punishes, And Who Can Reward, If He So Wishes, The Meanest And Vilest Of The Human Race, So That He Will Be Eternally Happy, And Can Punish The Best Of The Human Race, So That He Will Be Eternally Miserable, Is Subversive Of All Morality.

Love Your Friends And Be Just To Your Enemies.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Intellectual Liberty [is] The Right To Think Right And The Right To Think Wrong. Thought Is The Means By Which We Endeavor To Arrive At Truth.

He Who Dishonors Himself [by Lying About His Opinions] For The Sake Of Being Honored By Others Will Find That Two Mistakes Have Been Made - One By Himself, And The Other, By The People.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Music Was Born Of Love. Had There Never Been Any Human Affection, There Never Could Have Been Uttered A Strain Of Music.

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

I Have Made Up My Mind That If There Is A God, He Will Be Merciful To The Merciful. Upon That Rock I Stand. That He Will Not Torture The Forgiving. Upon That Rock I Stand. That Every Man Should Be True To Himself, And That There Is No World, No Star In Which Honesty Is A Crime. Upon That Rock I Stand.

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.

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.

Shakespeare Was An Intellectual Ocean, Whose Waves Touched All The Shores Of Thought; Within Which Were All The Tides And Waves Of Destiny And Will; Over Which Swept All The Storms Of Fate, Ambition And Revenge; Upon Which Fell The Gloom And Darkness Of Despair And Death And All The Sunlight Of Content And Love, And Within Which Was The Inverted Sky Lit With The Eternal Stars -- An Intellectual Ocean -- Toward Which All Rivers Ran, And From Which Now The Isles And Continents Of Thought Receive Their Dew And Rain.

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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?

He Was A Worshiper Of Liberty, A Friend Of The Oppressed. A Thousand Times I Have Heard Him Quote These Words: 'for Justice All Place A Temple, And All Season, Summer.' He Believed That Happiness Is The Only Good, Reason The Only Torch, Justice The Only Worship, Humanity The Only Religion, And Love The Only Priest. He Added To The Sum Of Human Joy; And Were Every One To Whom He Did Some Loving Service To Bring A Blossom To His Grave, He Would Sleep Tonight Beneath A Wilderness Of Flowers. . . .

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

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.

The Minister Asks, 'what Right Have You To Hope? It Is Sacrilegious To You.' But, Whether The Clergy Like It Or Not, I Shall Always Express My Real Opinion, And Shall Always Be Glad To Say To Those Who Mourn: 'there Is In Death, As I Believe, Nothing Worse Than Sleep. Hope For As Much Better As You Can.'

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.

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.

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 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!

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

Laughing Has Always Been Considered By Theologians As A Crime.

I Am Anxious To Give Away Information, For It Is Only By Giving It Away That You Can Keep It. When You Have Told It, You Remember It. It Is With Information As It Is With Liberty, The Only Way To Be Dead Sure Of It Is To Give It To Other People.

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?

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

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.

I Do Not Believe In Loving Enemies; I Have Pretty Hard Work To Love My Friends.

Is Not The History Of Real Civilization The Slow And Gradual Emancipation Of The Intellect, Of The Judgment, From The Mastery Of Passion? Is Not That Man Civilized Whose Reason Sits The Crowned Monarch Of His Brain - Whose Passions Are His Servants?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Positive Atheism

Argument Cannot Be Answered With Insults. Kindness Is Strength; Anger Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind.

Truth Is The Mother Of Joy. Truth Civilizes, Ennobles And Purifies. The Grandest Ambition That Can Enter The Soul Is To Know The Truth.

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.

The Declaration Of Independence Was A Denial, And The First Denial Of A Nation, Of The Infamous Dogma That God Confers The Right Upon One Man To Govern Others.

You Cannot Be So Poor That You Cannot Help Somebody.

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.

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

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.

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.

Good Nature Is The Cheapest Commodity In The World, And Love Is The Only Thing That Will Pay Ten Percent To Both Borrower And Lender.

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?

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

Positive Atheism

If There Be An Infinite Being, He Does Not Need Our Help - We Need Not Waste Our Energies In His Defense.

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.

Nothing But Truth Is Immortal.

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.

A Mortgage Casts A Shadow On The Sunniest Field.

When I Became Convinced That The Universe Is Natural, That All The Ghosts And Gods Are Myths, There Entered Into My Brain, Into My Soul, Into Every Drop Of My Blood The Sense, The Feeling, The Joy Of Freedom. The Walls Of My Prison Crumbled And Fell. The Dungeon Was Flooded With Light And All The Bolts And Bars And Manacles Became Dust.

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.

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.

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.

Either God Should Have Written A Book To Fit My Brain, Or He Should Have Made My Brain To Fit His Book.

If The Money Is Raised By Taxation, Then The Burden Will Fall Where It Ought To Fall, . . . And The Rich And Stingy Will No Longer Be Able To Evade The Duties Of Citizenship And Of Humanity.

With Their Backs To The Sunrise They Worship The Night.

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

I Am Going To Put The Bible Out Of Business.

Man Must Learn To Rely Upon Himself. Reading Bibles Will Not Protect Him From The Blasts Of Winter, But Houses, Fires. And Clothing Will. To Prevent Famine, One Plow Is Worth A Million Sermons, And Even Patent Medicines Will Cure More Diseases Than All The Prayers Uttered Since The Beginning Of The World.

Logic Is Not Satisfied With Assertion. It Cares Nothing For The Opinions Of The Great; Nothing For The Prejudices Of The Many, And Least Of All For The Superstitions Of The Dead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

...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.

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

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.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

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.

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.

Many People Think They Have Religion When They Are Troubled With Dyspepsia.

Positive Atheism

You Cannot Show Real Respect To Your Parents By Perpetuating Their Errors.... Do You Consider That The Inventor Of A Steel Plow Cast A Slur Upon His Father Who Scratched The Ground With A Wooden One? I Do Not Consider That An Invention By The Son Is A Slander Upon The Father; I Regard Each Invention Simply As An Improvement; And Every Father Should Be Exceedingly Proud Of An Ingenious Son. If Mr. Talmage Has A Son, It Will Be Impossible For Him To Honor His Father Except By Differing With Him.

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.

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

Liberty A Word Without Which All Other Words Are Vain.

Liberty Cannot Be Sacrificed For The Sake Of Anything.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

You See, After All, Few Rich Men Own Their Property. The Property Owns Them.

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.

This Is My Creed: Happiness Is The Only Good; Reason The Only Torch; Justice The Only Worship, Humanity The Only Religion, And Love The Only Priest.

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

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.

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

No Man Of Sense In The Whole World Believes In Devils Any More Than He Does In Mermaids, Vampires, Gorgons, Hydras, Naiads, Dryads, Nymphs, Fairies, The Fountain Of Youth, [or] The Philosopher's Stone. . . .

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.

The Man Who Finds A Truth Lights A Torch.

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

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.

Would God Give A Bird Wings And Make It A Crime To Fly? Would He Give Me Brains And Make It A Crime To Think? Any God That Would Damn One Of His Children For The Expression Of His Honest Thought Wouldn't Make A Decent Thief. When I Read A Book And Don't Believe It, I Ought To Say So. I Will Do So And Take The Consequences Like A Man.

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.

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.

Every Library Is An Arsenal.

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.

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.

Intelligence Is The Only Moral Guide.

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.

By Physical Liberty I Mean The Right To Do Anything Which Does Not Interfere With The Happiness Of Another. By Intellectual Liberty I Mean The Right To Think And The Right To Think Wrong.

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

Most Men Are Followers, And Implicitly Rely Upon The Judgment Of Others. They Mistake Solemnity For Wisdom, And Regard A Grave Countenance As The Title Page And Preface To A Most Learned Volume. So They Are Easily Imposed Upon By Forms, Strange Garments, And Solemn Ceremonies. And When The Teaching Of Parents, The Customs Of Neighbors, And The General Tongue Approve And Justify A Belief Or Creed, No Matter How Absurd, It Is Hard Even For The Strongest To Hold The Citadel Of His Soul. In Each Country, In Defence Of Each Religion, The Same Arguments Would Be Urged.

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

If There Is A God

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

Just To The Extent That The Bible Was Appealed To In Matters Of Science, Science Was Retarded; And Just To The Extent That Science Has Been Appealed To In Matters Of Religion, Religion Has Advanced - So That Now The Object Of Intelligent Religionists Is To Adopt A Creed That Will Bear The Test And Criticism Of Science.

To Plow Is To Pray; To Plant Is To Prophesy, And The Harvest Answers And Fulfills.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

Wait Until The World Is Free Before You Write A Creed. In This Creed There Will Be But One Word -- Liberty.

They Say That When God Was In Jerusalem He Forgave His Murderers, But Now He Will Not Forgive An Honest Man For Differing With Him On The Subject Of The Trinity. They Say That God Says To Me, "forgive Your Enemies." I Say, "i Do;" But He Says, "i Will Damn Mine." God Should Be Consistent. If He Wants Me To Forgive My Enemies He Should Forgive His. I Am Asked To Forgive Enemies Who Can Hurt Me. God Is Only Asked To Forgive Enemies Who Cannot Hurt Him. He Certainly Ought To Be As Generous As He Asks Us To Be.

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.

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

Justice For All

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.

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

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

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.

He (thomas Paine) Saw Oppression On Every Hand; Injustice Everywhere; Hypocrisy At The Altar; Venality On The Bench, Tyranny On The Throne; And With A Splendid Courage He Espoused The Cause Of The Weak Against The Strong

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Edwin Arlington Robinson

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