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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.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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Today The Intelligence Of

Robert Green Ingersoll

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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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

To Give Up Your Individuality Is To Annihilate Yourself.

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

The Old Testament Filled This World With Tyranny And Injustice, And The New Gives Us A Future Filled With Pain For Nearly All Of The Sons Of Men. The Old Testament Describes The Hell Of The Past, And The New The Hell Of The Future.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The Combined Wisdom And Genius Of All Mankind Cannot Possibly Conceive Of An Argument Against Liberty Of Thought.

Take From The Church The Miraculous, The Supernatural, The Incomprehensible, The Unreasonable, The Impossible, The Unknowable, The Absurd, And Nothing But A Vacuum Remains.

If There Is A God

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.

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

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

And Yet This Same Deity Says To Me, Resist Not Evil; Pray For Those That Despitefully Use You; Love Your Enemies, But I Will Eternally Damn Mine. It Seems To Me That Even Gods Should Practice What They Preach.

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

The Closer I'm Bound In Love To You, The Closer I Am To Free.

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

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

It Seems To Me Impossible For A Civilized Man To Love Or Worship, Or Respect The God Of The Old Testament. A Really Civilized Man, A Really Civilized Woman, Must Hold Such A God In Abhorrence And Contempt... In The New Testament, Death Is Not The End, But The Beginning Of Punishment That Has No End. In The New Testament The Malice Of God Is Infinite And The Hunger Of His Revenge Eternal... This Frightful Dogma, This Infinite Lie, Made Me The Implacable Enemy Of Christianity. The Truth Is That This Belief In Eternal Pain Has Been The Real Persecutor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

An Infinite Personality Is An Infinite Impossibility.

As A Man Develops, He Places A Greater Value Upon His Own Rights. Liberty Becomes A Grander And Diviner Thing. As He Values His Own Rights He Begins To Value The Rights Of Others. And When All Men Give To All Others All The Rights They Claim For Themselves, This World Will Be Civilized.

The Church Demonstrated The Falsity And Folly Of Darwin's Theories By Showing That They Contradicted The Mosaic Account Of Creation, And Now That The Theories Of Darwin Having Been Fairly Established, The Church Says That The Mosaic Account Is True Because It Is In Harmony With Darwin. Now, If It Should Turn Out That Darwin Was Mistaken, What Then?

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

Reason Is The Light, The Sun Of The Brain. It Is The Compass Of The Mind, The Ever-constant Northern Star, The Mountain Peak That Lifts Itself Above All Clouds.

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 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.

Commerce Is The Great Civilizer.

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.

Courage Without Conscience Is A Wild Beast.

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.

Ignorance Is The Soil In Which Belief In Miracles Grows.

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.

According To The Celestial Multiplication Table, Once One Is Three, And Three Times One Is One, And According To Heavenly Subtraction If We Take Two From Three, Three Are Left. The Addition Is Equally Peculiar, If We Add Two To One We Have But One. Each One Is Equal To Himself And The Other Two.

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

I 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.

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.

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

One Good Schoolmaster Is Worth A Thousand Priests.

Progress Is Born Of Doubt And Inquiry. The Church Never Doubts, Never Inquires. To Doubt Is Heresy, To Inquire Is To Admit That You Do Not Know—the Church Does Neither.

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

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.

I Would Rather Smoke One Cigar Than Hear Two Sermons.

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

The Book, Called The Bible, Is Filled With Passages Equally Horrible, Unjust And Atrocious. This Is The Book To Be Read In Schools In Order To Make Our Children Loving, Kind And Gentle! This Is The Book They Wish To Be Recognized In Our Constitution As The Source Of All Authority And Justice!

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

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.

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. . . .

The Careful Reader Of The New Testament Will Find Three Christs Described: - One Who Wished To Preserve Judaism - One Who Wished To Reform It, And One Who Built A System Of His Own

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

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

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.

At The Bottom Of Religious Persecution Is The Doctrine Of Self-defence; That Is To Say, The Defence Of The Soul. If The Founder Of Christianity Had Plainly Said: 'it Is Not Necessary To Believe In Order To Be Saved; It Is Only Necessary To Do, And He Who Really Loves His Fellow-men, Who Is Kind, Honest, Just And Charitable, Is To Be Forever Blest' - If He Had Only Said That, There Would Probably Have Been But Little Persecution.

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.

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

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 Crime Against God Is A Demonstrated Impossibility.

If We Are Immortal It Is A Fact In Nature, And We Are Not Indebted To Priests For It, Nor To Bibles For It, And It Cannot Be Destroyed By Unbelief.

Epithets Are Not Arguments. Abuse Does Not Persuade.

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.

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.

Love Your Friends And Be Just To Your Enemies.

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

Positive Atheism

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

It Is Labor That Has Made The World A Fit Habitation For The Human Race.

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

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

Intelligence Is The Only Moral Guide.

If Nobody Has Too Much, Everybody Will Have Enough.

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

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

Science Built The Academy, Superstition The Inquisition.

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.

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

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.

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

How Any Human Being Ever Has Had The Impudence To Speak Against The Right To Speak, Is Beyond The Power Of My Imagination. Here Is A Man Who Speaks-who Exercises A Right That He, By His Speech, Denies. Can Liberty Go Further Than That? Is There Any Toleration Possible Beyond The Liberty To Speak Against Liberty-the Real Believer In Free Speech Allowing Others To Speak Against The Right To Speak?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Grant Others The Same Rights As You Claim For Yourself.

No Man Should Kill Himself As Long As He Can Be Of The Least Use To Anybody, And If You Cannot Find Some Person That You Are Willing To Do Something For, Find A Good Dog And Take Care Of Him. You Have No Idea How Much Better You Will Feel.

Nothing Discloses Real Character Like The Use Of Power.

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.

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

Liberty Is The Breath Of Progress.

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

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.

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

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

We Rise By Lifting Others.

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

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.

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

Hope Is The Consolation Of The World.

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.

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

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

The Only Reason Why We Wish To Exchange Thoughts Is That We Are Different. If We Were All The Same, We Would Die Dumb. No Thought Would Be Expressed After We Found That Our Thoughts Were Precisely Alike. We Differ-our Thoughts Are Different. Therefore The Commerse That We Call Conversation.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 More A Man Knows, The More Willing He Is To Learn-the Less A Man Knows, The More Positive He Is That He Knows Everything.

The 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.

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?

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

The Triumph Of Justice Is The Only Peace.

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

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!"

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.

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.

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.

Christianity Has Such A Contemptible Opinion Of Human Nature That It Does Not Believe A Man Can Tell The Truth Unless Frightened By A Belief In God. No Lower Opinion Of The Human Race Has Ever Been Expressed.

Let Every Man Teach His Son, Teach His Daughter, That Labor Is Honorable.

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

The Old Lady Who Said There Must Be A Devil, Else How Could They Make Pictures That Looked Exactly Like Him, Reasoned Like A Trained Theologian - Like A Doctor Of Divinity.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Liberty Cannot Be Sacrificed For The Sake Of Anything.

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.

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.

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.

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

Intellectual Liberty Is The Air Of The Soul, The Sunshine Of The Mind, And Without It, The World Is A Prison, The Universe Is A Dungeon.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

[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.

You Cannot Be So Poor That You Cannot Help Somebody.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Fear Is Religion, Courage Is Science.

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.

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

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

Religion Can Never Reform Mankind Because Religion Is Slavery.

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.

Death Is Only Perfect Rest.

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

We Are All Children Of The Same Mother, And The Same Fate Awaits Us All. We, Too, Have Our Religion, And It Is This: Help For The Living-hope For The Dead.

It 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.

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

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

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

Fear Paints Pictures Of Ghosts And Hangs Them In The Gallery Of Ignorance.

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

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

Positive Atheism

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Good Nature Is The Cheapest Commodity In The 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.

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.

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.

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.

Crimes Were Committed To Punish Crimes, And Crimes Were Committed To Prevent Crimes. The World Has Been Filled With Prisons And Dungeons, With Chains And Whips, With Crosses And Gibbets, With Thumbscrews And Racks, With Hangmen And Heads-men — And Yet These Frightful Means And Instrumentalities Have Committed Far More Crimes Than They Have Prevented.... Ignorance, Filth, And Poverty Are The Missionaries Of Crime. As Long As Dishonorable Success Outranks Honest Effort — As Long As Society Bows And Cringes Before The Great Thieves, There Will Be Little Ones Enough To Fill The Jails.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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