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

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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Of Course, Ministers Look

Robert Green Ingersoll

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

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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.

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

Love Your Friends And Be Just To Your Enemies.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Whoever Saw An Angel Barefooted?

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

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

With Soap, Baptism Is A Good Thing.

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.

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

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

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

Ignorance Is The Soil In Which Belief In Miracles Grows.

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.

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.

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

Orthodoxy Cannot Afford To Put Out The Fires Of Hell.

Cruelty Hardens And Degrades, Kindness Reforms And Ennobles.

All Prayers Die In The Air Which They Uselessly Agitate.

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.

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.

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

For The Most Part We Inherit Our Opinions. We Are The Heirs Of Habits And Mental Customs. Our Beliefs, Like The Fashion Of Our Garments, Depend On Where We Were Born. We Are Molded And Fashioned By Our Surroundings.

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

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.

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

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

Blasphemy Is An Epithet Bestowed By Superstition Upon Common Sense.

I Have Always Noticed That The People Who Have The Smallest Souls Make The Most Fuss About Getting Them Saved.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

One Good Schoolmaster Is Worth A Thousand Priests.

To Give Up Your Individuality Is To Annihilate Yourself.

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

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?

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.

All The Martyrs In The History Of The World Are Not Sufficient To Establish The Correctness Of An Opinion. Martyrdom, As A Rule, Establishes The Sincerity Of The Martyr, - Never The Correctness Of His Thought. Things Are True Or False In Themselves. Truth Cannot Be Affected By Opinions; It Cannot Be Changed, Established, Or Affected By Martyrdom. An Error Cannot Be Believed Sincerely Enough To Make It A Truth.

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

Hope Is The Only Bee That Makes Honey Without Flowers.

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 Hands That Help Are Better Far Than Lips That Pray.

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

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

The Unitarian Church Has Done More Than Any Other Church To Substitute Character For Creed, And To Say That A Man Should Be Judged By His Spirit; By The Climate Of His Heart; By The Autumn Of His Generosity; By The Spring Of His Hope; That He Should Be Judged By What He Does; By The Influence That He Exerts, Rather Than By The Mythology He May Believe.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

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

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.

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."

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

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

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.

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.

A Mortgage Casts A Shadow On The Sunniest Field.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

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

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.

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

Nothing Could Be More Idiotic And Absurd Than The Doctrine Of The Trinity.

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

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

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

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

An Infinite Personality Is An Infinite Impossibility.

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

The Whip Degrades; A Severe Father Teaches His Children To Dissemble; Their Love Is Pretense, And Their Obedience A Species Of Self-defense. Fear Is The Father Of Lies.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

A Good Deed Is The Best Prayer.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

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?

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.

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

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

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

Suppose, However, That God Did Give This Law To The Jews, And Did Tell Them That Whenever A Man Preached A Heresy, Or Proposed To Worship Any Other God That They Should Kill Him; And Suppose That Afterward This Same God Took Upon Himself Flesh, And Came To This Very Chosen People And Taught A Different Religion, And That Thereupon The Jews Crucified Him; I Ask You, Did He Not Reap Exactly What He Had Sown? What Right Would This God Have To Complain Of A Crucifixion Suffered In Accordance With His Own Command?

I Am Going To Put The Bible Out Of Business.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Epithets Are Not Arguments. Abuse Does Not Persuade.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Meekness Is The Mask Of Malice.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

The Christians Say, That Among The Ancient Jews, If You Committed A Crime You Had To Kill A Sheep. Now They Say 'charge It.' 'put It On The Slate.' The Savior Will Pay It. In This Way, Rascality Is Sold On Credit, And The Credit System In Morals, As In Business, Breeds Extravagance.

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

Scientific Method

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

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.

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

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.

[t]he Blossom Of Benevolence, Of Charity, Is The Fairest Flower, No Matter Whether It Blooms By The Side Of A Hovel, Or Bursts From A Vine Climbing The Marble Pillar Of A Palace. I Respect No Man Because He Is Rich; I Hold In Contempt No Man Because He Is Poor.

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

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

Kindness Is The Sunshine In Which Virtue Grows.

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

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.

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

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

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

Freedom Of Religion

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

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

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

A Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

It Is A Blessed Thing That In Every Age Some One Has Had The Individuality Enough And Courage Enough To Stand By His Own Convictions.

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."

Whenever A Man Believes That He Has The Exact Truth From God, There Is In That Man No Spirit Of Compromise. He Has Not The Modesty Born Of The Imperfections Of Human Nature; He Has The Arrogance Of Theological Certainty And The Tyranny Born Of Ignorant Assurance. Believing Himself To Be The Slave Of God, He Imitates His Master, And Of All Tyrants The Worst Is A Slave In Power.

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.

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

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-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.

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

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

The Triumph Of Justice Is The Only Peace.

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.

Every Man Is Dishonest Who Lives Upon The Labor Of Others, No Matter If He Occupies A Throne.

Economic Inequality

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

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

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 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.

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

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

Labor Is The Only Prayer That Nature Answers.

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

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

Every Human Being Should Be Taught That His First Duty Is To Take Care Of Himself, And That To Be Self-respecting He Must Be Self-supporting. To Live On The Labor Of Others, Either By Force Which Enslaves, Or By Cunning Which Robs, Or By Borrowing Or Begging, Is Wholly Dishonorable. Every Man Should Be Taught Some Useful Art.

Liberty Cannot Be Sacrificed For The Sake Of Temperance, For The Sake Of Morality, Or For The Sake Of Anything. It Is Of More Value Than Everything. Yet Some People Would Destroy The Sun To Prevent The Growth Of Weeds. Liberty Sustains The Same Relation To All The Virtues That The Sun Does To Life.

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

Positive Atheism

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.

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

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Witold Gombrowicz

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