Quote

This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves.

Robert Green Ingersoll

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Robert Green Ingersoll
Age: 65 †
Born: 1833
Born: August 11
Died: 1899
Died: July 21
Essayist
Lawyer
Lecturer
Orator
Philosopher
Politician
Writer
Dresden
Yates County
New York
Robert Ingersoll
The Great Agnostic
Take
Intelligence
Atheism
Blasphemy
Crime
Doctrines
Called
Defending
Purpose
Priests
Religion
Invented
Care
Atheist
Able
Doctrine

More quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll

Image
Nothing could be more dangerous to the existence of this Republic than to introduce religion into politics
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
To know that the Bible is the literature of a barbarous people, to know that it is uninspired, to be certain that the supernatural does not and cannot exist - all this is but the beginning of wisdom.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Intelligence, guided by kindness, is the highest wisdom. . . .
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Do right, not to deny yourself but because you love yourself and because you love others.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Civilization has gotten further and further from the so-called 'natural' man, who uses all his faculties: perception, invention, improvisation.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Reason, observation, and experience the holy trinity of science.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
We have at last ascertained that miracles can be perfectly understood that there is nothing mysterious about them that they are simply transparent falsehoods.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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
Image
Millions of men give all their energies, as well as their very souls, for the acquisition of gold. And this will continue as long as society is ignorant enough and hypocritical enough to hold in high esteem the man of wealth without the slightest regard to the character of the man.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Sacred are the lips from which has issued only truth.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn a large majority of the human race.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
For myself, I have but little confidence in any business, or enterprise, or investment, that promises dividends only after the death of the stockholders.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll