Robert Green Ingersoll

“The sacred books of all the world are worthless dross and common stones compared with Shakespeare's glittering gold and gleaming gems.”

“There are so many societies, so many churches, so many -isms, that it is almost impossible for an independent man to succeed in a political career.”

“When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.”

“Character is made of duty and love and sympathy, and, above all, of living and working for others.”

“They who gain applause and power by pandering to the mistakes, the prejudices and passions of the multitude are the enemies of liberty.”

“George Eliot tenderly carried in her heart the burdens of our race. She looked through pity's tears upon the faults and frailties of mankind.”

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

“There is no common sense in going to the field to fight and leaving a man at home to undo all that you accomplish.”

“It has been said that a man of genius should select his ancestors with great care - and yet there does not seem to be as much in heredity as most people think. The children of the great are often small.”

“Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty.”

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

“The Catholics of Maryland were the first people on the new continent to declare universal religious toleration. Let this be remembered to their eternal honor.”

“Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.”

“Ignorant people are apt to overrate the value of what is called education. The sons of the poor, having suffered the privations of poverty, think of wealth as the mother of joy.”

“The time to be happy is now, and the place to be happy is here.”

“Let us account for all we see by the facts we know. If there are things for which we cannot account, let us wait for light.”

“I say, let us think. Let each one express his thought. Let us become investigators, not followers, not cringers and crawlers. If there is in Heaven an infinite being, he never will be satisfied with the worship of cowards and hypocrites.”

“The walls of that grand edifice called a good character have to be worked at during life.”

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

“Custom is a prison, locked and barred by those who long ago were dust, the keys of which are in the keeping of the dead.”