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About this quote

What does it mean?
Giving up intellectual freedom is equated to spiritual death or entombment.
In plain terms
If you stop thinking for yourself, your soul is effectively dead.
What can you take from it?
Guard your right to think independently at all costs.

Where it applies

  • resisting indoctrination
  • valuing education

Putting it to work

  • question authority
  • stay curious

Questions to consider

  • What does intellectual freedom mean to you?
  • How do you protect your independent thought?

Another view

It ignores that some people find comfort in guided belief.

More from Robert G. Ingersoll

  1. Marriages are made by men and women; not by society; not by the state; not by the church; not by supernatural beings.

    Permalink to quote #165
  2. My liberty ends where yours begin.

    Permalink to quote #167
  3. Man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it himself.

    Permalink to quote #164

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