14 Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes on Society

Robert G. Ingersoll quotes on society

45. I do not believe that the tendency is to make men and women brave and glorious when you tell them that there are certain ideas upon certain subjects that they must never express; that they must go through life with a pretence as a shield; that their neighbors will think much more of them if they will only keep still; and that above all is a God who despises one who honestly expresses what he believes. For my part, I believe men will be nearer honest in business, in politics, grander in art - in everything that is good and grand and beautiful, if they are taught from the cradle to the coffin to tell their honest opinion.

73. Now, gentlemen, what is blasphemy? Of course nobody knows what it is, unless he takes into consideration where he is. What is blasphemy in one country would be a religious exhortation in another.

93. Certainly marriages by Justices of the Peace cannot cause the mental, moral and financial decay of a State.

94. Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

118. Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrines of the weak.

126. I despise a stingy man. I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it.

144. If I had my way I'd make health catching instead of disease.

149. In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.

164. Man has found that he must give liberty to others in order to have it himself.

172. 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 get together and repeat wise saws, and exchange knowing nods and most prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit owl-like on the dead limbs of the tree of knowledge, and solemnly hoot. Wealth sneers, and fashion laughs, and respectability passes by on the other side, and scorn points with all her skinny fingers, and all the snakes of superstition writhe and hiss, and slander lends her tongue, and infamy her brand, and perjury her oath, and the law its power, and bigotry tortures, and the church kills.

175. Only a few years ago there was a great awakening of the human mind. Men began to inquire by what right a crowned robber made them work for him? The man who asked this question was called a traitor. Others asked by what right does a robed hypocrite rule my thought? Such men were called infidels. The priest said, and the king said, where is this spirit of investigation to stop? They said then and they say now, that it is dangerous for man to be free. I deny it. Out on the intellectual sea there is room enough for every sail. In the intellectual air there is space enough for every wing.

180. Prejudice, egotism, hatred, contempt, disdain, are the enemies of truth and progress.

190. The church cries now 'whom God hath joined together let not man put asunder;' but when the people are really civilized the state will say: 'whom Nature hath put asunder let not man bind and manacle together.'

217. There will never be a generation of great men until there has been a generation of free women - of free mothers.