sâmbătă, 16 ianuarie 2010

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833 – 1899)


Intelligent people would ask not for rewards, but reasons.
Only hypocrites would ask for the money.
Yet, according to the New Testament, Christ offered a reward
to those who would believe, and this promised reward was to take
the place of evidence. When Christ made this promise he forgot,
ignored, or held in contempt the rectitude of a brave, free and
natural soul.
The declaration that salvation is the reward for belief is
inconsistent with mental freedom, and could have been made by no
man who thought that evidence sustained the slightest relation to
belief. “Truth” (1897)

Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

Few rich men own their property; their property owns them.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result. 

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

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. 

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith.

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. 

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. 

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it. 

The more liberty you give away the more you will have. 

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.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

There is no slavery but ignorance.

We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death. 

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. 

When the will defies fear, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.



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