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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.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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Love Is The Only

Robert Green Ingersoll

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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.

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

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

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

Sometime, It Will Be Found That People Can Be Changed Only By Changing Their Surroundings. It Is Alleged That, At Least Ninety-five Percent Of The Criminals Transported From England To Australia And Other Penal Colonies, Became Good And Useful Citizens In A New World.

The Real Searcher After Truth Will Not Receive The Old Because It Is Old, Or Reject The New Because It Is New. He Will Not Believe Men Because They Are Dead, Or Contradict Them Because They Are Alive. With Him An Utterance Is Worth The Truth, The Reason It Contains, Without The Slightest Regard To The Author. He May Have Been A King Or Serf - A Philosopher Or Servant, - But The Utterance Neither Gains Nor Loses In Truth Or Reason. Its Value Is Absolutely Independent Of The Fame Or Station Of The Man Who Gave It To The World.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

There 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.

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.

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

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

Laughing Has Always Been Considered By Theologians As A Crime.

It Is Incredible That Only Idiots Are Absolutely Sure Of Salvation. It Is Incredible That The More Brain You Have The Less Your Chance Is. There Can Be No Danger In Honest Thought, And If The World Ever Advances Beyond What It Is To-day, It Must Be Led By Men Who Express Their Real Opinions.

An Infinite God Ought To Be Able To Protect Himself, Without Going In Partnership With State Legislatures.

If A Man Wishes To Have God Recognized In The Constitution Of Our Country, Let Him Read The History Of The Inquisition, And Let Him Remember That Hundreds Of Millions Of Men, Women, And Children Have Been Sacrificed To Placate The Wrath, Or Win The Approbation Of This God.

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

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.

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.

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.

There Is No Harmony Between Religion And Science. When Science Was A Child, Religion Sought To Strangle It In The Cradle. Now That Science Has Attained Its Youth, And Superstition Is In Its Dotage, The Trembling, Palsied Wreck Says To The Athlete: "let Us Be Friends."

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.

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.

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

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.

Injustice Upon Earth Renders The Justice Of Of Heaven Impossible.

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

Justice For All

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

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.

My Principal Objections To Orthodox Religion Are Two: Slavery Here And Hell Hereafter.

Every Man That Tried To Destroy The Government, Every Man That Shot At The Holy Flag In Heaven, Every Man That Starved Our Soldiers... Every Man That Wanted To Burn The Negro, Every One That Wanted To Scatter Yellow Fever In The North, Every Man That Opposed Human Liberty, That Regarded The Auction-block As An Altar And The Howling Of The Bloodhound As The Music Of The Union, Every Man Who Wept Over The Corpse Of Slavery, That Thought Lashes On The Naked Back Were A Legal Tender For Labour Performed, Every One Willing To Rob A Mother Of Her Child - Every Solitary One Was A Democrat.

We Rise By Lifting Others.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Intelligence Is The Only Moral Guide.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Hope Is The Only Bee That Makes Honey Without Flowers.

A Fact Never Went Into Partnership With A Miracle. Truth Scorns The Assistance Of Wonders. A Fact Will Fit Every Other Fact In The Universe, And That Is How You Can Tell Whether It Is Or Is Not A Fact. A Lie Will Not Fit Anything Except Another Lie.

Death Is Only Perfect Rest.

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

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

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

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.

The Glory Of Science Is, That It Is Freeing The Soul, Breaking The Mental Manacles, Getting The Brain Out Of Bondage, Giving Courage To Thought, Filling The World With Mercy, Justice, And Joy.

Age After Age, The Strong Have Trampled Upon The Weak; The Crafty And Heartless Have Ensnared And Enslaved The Simple And Innocent, And Nowhere, In All The Annals Of Mankind, Has Any God Succored The Oppressed

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.

Too Much Doubt Is Better Than Too Much Credulity.

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.

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.

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

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

Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

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

If There Is A God

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

Freedom Of Religion

To Destroy Guide-boards That Point In The Wrong Direction . . . To Drive The Fiend Of Fear From The Mind . . . Is The Task Of The Freethinker.

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

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.

The Triumph Of Justice Is The Only Peace.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

If Nobody Has Too Much, Everybody Will Have Enough.

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.

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.

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

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

I Admit That Books Were Voted In And Out, And That The Bible Was Finally Formed In Accordance With A Vote.

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.

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

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."

When One Of Your Children Tells A Lie, Be Honest With Him; Tell Him That You Have Told Hundreds Of Them Yourself. Tell Him It Is Not The Best Way; That You Have Tried It. Tell Him As The Man Did In Maine When His Boy Left Home: "john, Honesty Is The Best Policy; I Have Tried Both."

The Ministers Are In Duty Bound To Denounce All Intellectual Pride, And Show That We Are Never Quite So Dear To God As When We Admit That We Are Poor, Corrupt And Idiotic Worms; That We Never Should Have Been Born; That We Ought To Be Damned Without The Least Delay.... The Old Creed Is Still Taught. They Still Insist That God Is Infinitely Wise, Powerful And Good, And That All Men Are Totally Depraved. They Insist That The Best Man God Ever Made, Deserved To Be Damned The Moment He Was Finished.

We Need Men With Moral Courage To Speak And Write Their Real Thoughts, And To Stand By Their Convictions, Even To The Very Death.

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.

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.

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

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.

Most People Can Bear Adversity. But If You Wish To Know What A Man Really Is, Give Him Power.

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.

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

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

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

The 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.

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

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

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.

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

Every Library Is An Arsenal.

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.

I Am Going To Put The Bible Out Of Business.

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

In All Ages The People Have Honored Those Who Dishonored Them. They Have Worshiped Their Destroyers; They Have Canonized The Most Gigantic Liars, And Buried The Great Thieves In Marble And Gold. Under The Loftiest Monuments Sleeps The Dust Of Murder.

To Give Up Your Individuality Is To Annihilate Yourself.

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

Why Should We Desire The Destruction Of Human Passions? Take Passions From Human Beings And What Is Left? The Great Object Should Be Not To Destroy Passions, But To Make Them Obedient To The Intellect. To Indulge Passion To The Utmost Is One Form Of Intemperance - To Destroy Passion Is Another. The Reasonable Gratification Of Passion Under The Domination Of The Intellect Is True Wisdom And Perfect Virtue.

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

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.

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.

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.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

Nothing Discloses Real Character Like The Use Of Power. It Is Easy For The Weak To Be Gentle. Most People Can Bear Adversity. But If You Wish To Know What A Man Really Is, Give Him Power. This Is The Supreme Test. It Is The Glory Of Lincoln That, Having Almost Absolute Power, He Never Abused It, Except Upon The Side Of Mercy.

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

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.

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

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

Positive Atheism

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

Positive Atheism

With Their Backs To The Sunrise They Worship The Night.

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.

There Is No Slavery But Ignorance.

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

I Hate Above All Things A Cross Man. What Right Has He To Murder The Sunshine Of A Day? What Right Has He To Assassinate The Joy Of Life? When You Go Home, You Ought To Go Like A Ray Of Light-so That It Will, Even In The Night, Burst Out Of The Doors And Windows And Illuminate The Darkness.

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

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!

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.

Twenty Years After The Death Of Luther There Were More Catholics Than When He Was Born. And Twenty Years After The Death Of Voltaire There Were Millions Less Than When He Was Born.

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.

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.

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

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

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.

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

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

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

I Believe That There Is Something Far Nobler Than Loyalty To Any Particular Man. Loyalty To The Truth As We Perceive It - Loyalty To Our Duty As We Know It - Loyalty To The Ideals Of Our Brain And Heart - Is, To My Mind, Far Greater And Far Nobler Than Loyalty To The Life Of Any Particular Man Or God. . . .

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

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

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

Scientific Method

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Who Can Over Estimate The Progress Of The World If All The Money Wasted In Superstition Could Be Used To Enlighten, Elevate And Civilize Mankind?

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.

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.

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.

A Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

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.

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.

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

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.

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

All That Is Necessary, As It Seems To Me, To Convince Any Reasonable Person That The Bible Is Simply And Purely Of Human Invention - Of Barbarian Invention - Is To Read It. Read It As You Would Any Other Book; Think Of It As You Would Of Any Other; Get The Bandage Of Reverence From Your Eyes; Drive From Your Heart The Phantom Of Fear; Push From The Throne Of Your Brain The Cowled Form Of Superstition - Then Read The Holy Bible, And You Will Be Amazed That You Ever, For One Moment, Supposed A Being Of Infinite Wisdom, Goodness And Purity, To Be The Author Of Such Ignorance And Of Such Atrocity.

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 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.

Labor Is The Only Prayer That Nature Answers.

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.

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

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.

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

The Record Of A Generous Life Runs Like A Vine Around The Memory Of Our Dead, And Every Sweet Unselfish Act Is Now A Perfumed Flower.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

If The Bible Is True, It Needs No Inspiration, And - If Not True, Inspiration Can Do It No Good.

It Is Like Most Other Ancient Books - A Mingling Of Falsehood And Truth, Of Philosophy And Folly - All Written By Men, And Most Of The Men Only Partially Civilized. Some Of Its Laws Are Good - Some Infinitely Barbarous. None Of The Miracles Related Were Performed. . . . Take Out The Absurdities, The Miracles, All That Pertains To The Supernatural - All The Cruel And Barbaric Laws - And To The Remainder I Have No Objection. Neither Would I Have For It Any Great Admiration.

Religion Supports Nobody. It Has To Be Supported. It Produces No Wheat, No Corn; It Ploughs No Land; It Fells No Forests. It Is A Perpetual Mendicant. It Lives On The Labors Of Others, And Then Has The Arrogance To Pretend That It Supports The Giver.

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

Orthodoxy Cannot Afford To Put Out The Fires Of Hell.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I 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.

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