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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.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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The Catholic Church Is

Robert Green Ingersoll

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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.

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

One Laugh Of A Child Will Make The Holiest Day More Sacred Still.

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

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.

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.

Love Your Friends And Be Just To Your Enemies.

...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.

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.

Injustice Upon Earth Renders The Justice Of Of Heaven Impossible.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Way To Be Happy Is To Make Others So.

There Is No Slavery But Ignorance.

What Has Religion To Do With Facts? Nothing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Today The Intelligence Of The World Denies The Miraculous. Ignorance Is The Soil Of The Supernatural. The Foundation Of Christianity Has Crumbled, Has Disappeared, And The Entire Fabric Must Fall. The Natural Is True. The Miraculous Is False.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Do Not Tell Me That You Have Got To Be Rich! We Have A False Standard Of Greatness In The United States. We Think Here That A Man Must Be Great, That He Must Be Notorious; That He Must Be Extremely Wealthy, Or That His Name Must Be Upon The Putrid Lips Of Rumor. It Is All A Mistake. It Is Not Necessary To Be Rich Or To Be Great, Or To Be Powerful, To Be Happy. The Happy Man Is The Successful Man. Happiness Is The Legal Tender Of The Soul.joy Is Wealth.

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?

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

Liberty Is The Condition Of Progress. Without Liberty, There Remains Only Barbarism. Without Liberty, There Can Be No Civilization.

Liberty Cannot Be Sacrificed For The Sake Of Anything.

Let Us Account For All We See By The Facts We Know. If There Are Things For Which We Cannot Account, Let Us Wait For Light. To Account For Anything By Supernatural Agencies Is, In Fact To Say That We Do Not Know. Theology Is Not What We Know About God, But What We Do Not Know About Nature.

Too Much Doubt Is Better Than Too Much Credulity.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

A Mortgage Casts A Shadow On The Sunniest Field.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

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?

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.

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

In The Republic Of Mediocrity, Genius Is Dangerous.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Church Has Always Been Willing To Swap Off Treasures In Heaven For Cash Down.

If There Be Gods We Cannot Help Them, But We Can Assist Our Fellow Men. We Cannot Love The Inconceivable, But We Can Love Wife And Child And Friend.

If There Is A God

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

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

If Abuses Are Destroyed, Man Must Destroy Them. If Slaves Are Freed, Man Must Free Them. If New Truths Are Discovered, Man Must Discover Them. If The Naked Are Clothed; If The Hungry Are Fed; If Justice Is Done; If Labor Is Rewarded; If Superstition Is Driven From The Mind; If The Defenseless Are Protected, And If The Right Finally Triumphs, All Must Be The Work Of Man. The Grand Victories Of The Future Must Be Won By Man, And By Man Alone.

The Notion That Faith In Christ Is To Be Rewarded By An Eternity Of Bliss, While A Dependence Upon Reason, Observation, And Experience Merits Everlasting Pain, Is Too Absurd For Refutation, And Can Be Believed Only By That Unhappy Mixture Of Insanity And Ignorance, Called Faith.

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.

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

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

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

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Years Should Not Be Devoted To The Acquisition Of Dead Languages Or To The Study Of History Which, For The Most Part, Is A Detailed Account Of Things That Never Occurred. It Is Useless To Fill The Individual With Dates Of Great Battles, With The Births And Deaths Of Kings. They Should Be Taught The Philosophy Of History, The Growth Of Nations, Of Philosophies, Theories, And, Above All, Of The Sciences.

The 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.

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

The Greatest Superstition Now Entertained By Public Men Is That Hypocrisy Is The Royal Road To Success.

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.

You Cannot Be So Poor That You Cannot Help Somebody.

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

Positive Atheism

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.

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.

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

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man.

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.

This Crime Called Blasphemy Was Invented By Priests For The Purpose Of Defending Doctrines Not Able To Take Care Of Themselves.

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

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.

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

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

Sacred Are The Lips From Which Has Issued Only Truth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If God Created The Universe, There Was A Time When He Commenced To Create. Back Of That Commencement There Must Have Been An Eternity. In That Eternity What Was This God Doing? He Certainly Did Not Think. There Was Nothing To Think About. He Did Not Remember. Nothing Had Ever Happened. What Did He Do? Can You Imagine Anything More Absurd Than An Infinite Intelligence In Infinite Nothing Wasting An Eternity?

Infinite Intelligence

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

The Undressed Is Vulgar; The Nude Is Pure, And The Well-dressed Tainted.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

There Is Only One Way To Be Happy, And That Is To Make Somebody Else So, And You Cannot Be Happy By Going Cross Lots; You Have Got To Go The Regular Turnpike Road.

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

If This Religion Is True, Then There Is Only One Savior, Only One Narrow Path To Life. Christianity Cannot Live In Peace With Any Other Religion.

With Their Backs To The Sunrise They Worship The Night.

Every Cradle Asks Us, Whence? And Every Coffin, Whither? The Poor Barbarian, Weeping Above His Dead, Can Answer These Questions As Intelligently As The Robed Priest Of The Most Authentic Creed.

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

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.

Kindness Is The Sunshine In Which Virtue Grows.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Freedom Of Religion

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

Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

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.

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

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

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

The Hands That Help Are Better Far / Than Lips That Pray. / Love Is The Ever Gleaming Star / That Leads The Way, / That Shines, Not On Vague Worlds Of Bliss, / But On A Paradise In This.

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

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.

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

The Man Who Finds A Truth Lights A Torch.

Every Flower About A House Certifies To The Refinement Of Somebody. Every Vine Climbing And Blossoming Tells Of Love And Joy

The First Duty Of Man Is To Support Himself - To See To It That He Does Not Become A Burden. His Next Duty Is To Help Others If He Has A Surplus, And If He Really Believes They Deserve To Be Helped.

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

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

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.

Burns Had His Faults, His Frailties. He Was Intensely Human. Still, I Would Rather Appear At The "judgment Seat" Drunk, And Be Able To Say That I Was The Author Of "a Man's A Man For 'a That," Than To Be Perfectly Sober And Admit That I Had Lived And Died A Scotch Presbyterian.

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

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

We Must Remember That We Have To Make Judges Out Of Men, And That By Being Made Judges Their Prejudices Are Not Diminished And Their Intelligence Is Not Increased.

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.

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

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

Ignorance Is The Worst Form Of Slavery. (paraphrased)

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.

One Good Schoolmaster Is Worth A Thousand Priests.

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

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.

A Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

The Greatest Test Of Courage On Earth Is To Bear Defeat Without Losing Heart.

Arguments Cannot Be Answered With Insults. . . . Kindness Is Strength. . . . Anger Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind. In The Examination Of A Great And Important Question, Every One Should Be Serene, Slow-pulsed, And Calm.

With Soap, Baptism Is A Good Thing.

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

The Myth Of Hell Represents All The Meanness, All The Revenge, All The Selfishness, All The Cruelty, All The Hatred, All The Infamy Of Which The Heart Of Man Is Capable.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

It Seems To Me Impossible For A Civilized Man To Love Or Worship, Or Respect The God Of The Old Testament. A Really Civilized Man, A Really Civilized Woman, Must Hold Such A God In Abhorrence And Contempt.

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.

Christianity Did Not Come With Tidings Of Great Joy, But With A Message Of Eternal Grief. It Came With The Threat Of Everlasting Torture On Its Lips. It Meant War On Earth And Perdition Hereafter.

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.

Liberty Is The Breath Of Progress.

Science Built The Academy, Superstition The Inquisition.

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

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

Is There An Intelligent Man Or Woman Now In The World Who Believes In The Garden Of Eden Story? If You Find Any Man Who Believes It, Strike His Forehead And You Will Hear An Echo. Something Is For Rent.

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.

If We Admit That Some Infinite Being Has Controlled The Destinies Of Persons And Peoples, History Becomes A Most Cruel And Bloody Farce.

All Prayers Die In The Air Which They Uselessly Agitate.

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.

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

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.

An Honest God Is The Noblest Work Of Man. ... God Has Always Resembled His Creators. He Hated And Loved What They Hated And Loved And He Was Invariably Found On The Side Of Those In Power. ... Most Of The Gods Were Pleased With Sacrifice, And The Smell Of Innocent Blood Has Ever Been Considered A Divine Perfume.

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

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