Quote

All religious systems enslave the mind. Certain things are demanded-certain things must be believed-certain things must be done-and the man who becomes the subject or servant of this superstition must give up all idea of indivuality or hope of intellectual growth or progress.

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
Ideas
Growth
Superstition
Done
Progress
Superstitions
Must
Becomes
Systems
Giving
Religious
Servant
Mind
Hope
Believed
Things
Idea
Subject
Men
Certain
Intellectual
Enslave
Give
Subjects
Demanded

More quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll

Image
The church teaches us that we can make God happy by being miserable ourselves.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
[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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Death is only perfect rest.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
It is grander to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat a creed.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead, and every sweet unselfish act is now a perfumed flower.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
And why does this same God tell me how to raise my children when he had to drown his?
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
I would rather be a beggar and spend my money like a king, than be a king and spend money like a beggar.
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
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
There will never be a generation of great men until there has been a generation of free women - of free mothers.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
He who commends the brutalities of the past, sows the seeds of future crimes.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Image
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.
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