Quote #106

Every man should be mentally honest. He should preserve as his most precious jewel the perfect veracity of his soul. He should examine all questions presented to his mind, without prejudice, - unbiased by hatred or love - by desire or fear. His object and his only object should be to find the truth. He knows, if he listens to reason, that truth is not dangerous and that error is. He should weigh the evidence, the arguments, in honest scales - scales that passion or interest cannot change. He should care nothing for authority - nothing for names, customs or creeds - nothing for anything that his reason does not say is true.

More from Robert G. Ingersoll

  1. Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.
  2. Everything in nature tells a different story to all eyes that see and to all ears that hear. So, when we look upon a flower, a painting, a …
  3. Every library is an arsenal.
  4. Facts need no pedigree; logic has no heraldry, and the living should not be awed by the mistakes of the dead.
  5. Every child should be taught to doubt, to inquire, to demand reasons. Every soul should defend itself - should be on its guard against fals…
  6. Few people have an adequate idea of the sufferings of women and children, of the number of wives who tremble when they hear the footsteps o…
  7. Every brain is a field where Nature sows the seeds of thought, and the crop depends upon the soil.
  8. For the most part, colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

All Robert G. Ingersoll quotes