Quote #169

No man can open his mouth against the freedom of speech without denying every argument he may put forward. Why? He is exercising the right that he denies. How did he get it? Suppose there is one man on an island. You will all admit now that he would have the right to do his own thinking. You will all admit that he has the right to express his thought. Now, will somebody tell me how many men would have to emigrate to that island before the original settler would lose his right to think and his right to express himself?

More from Robert G. Ingersoll

  1. No man can control his belief. If I hear certain evidence I will believe a certain thing. If I fail to hear it I may never believe it. If i…
  2. No man in the hour of death ever regretted having been honest. No man when the shadows of the last day were gathering about the pillow of d…
  3. My liberty ends where yours begin.
  4. Nothing but falsehood needs the assistance of fame and place, of robes and mitres, of tiaras and crowns.
  5. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul.
  6. Now and then somebody examines, and in spite of all keeps his manhood, and has the courage to follow where his reason leads. Then the pious…
  7. Marriages are made by men and women; not by society; not by the state; not by the church; not by supernatural beings.
  8. One good schoolteacher is worth more than 100 priests.

All Robert G. Ingersoll quotes