Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.
Robert G. Ingersoll

The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.
Robert G. Ingersoll

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Few rich men own their own property. Their property owns them.
Robert G. Ingersoll

The present is the necessary product of all the past, the necessary cause of all the future.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.
Robert G. Ingersoll

In nature there are neither rewards or punishments-there are consequences.
Robert G. Ingersoll

The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here.
Robert G. Ingersoll

If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine. It has covered the cheeks of this world with tears. It has polluted the hearts of children, and poisoned the imaginations of men. It has been a constant pain, a perpetual terror to every good man and woman and child. It has filled the good with horror and with fear; but it has had no effect upon the infamous and base. It has wrung the hearts of the tender, it has furrowed the cheeks of the good. This doctrine never should be preached again. What right have you, sir, Mr. clergyman, you, minister of the gospel to stand at the portals of the tomb, at the vestibule of eternity, and fill the future with horror and with fear? I do not believe this doctrine, neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart of a snake and the conscience of a hyena.
Robert G. Ingersoll

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.
Robert G. Ingersoll

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.
Robert G. Ingersoll

If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help — we need not waste our energies in his defense.
Robert G. Ingersoll

My principal objections to orthodox religion are two – slavery here and hell hereafter.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the money wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize mankind?
Robert G. Ingersoll

But honest men do not pretend to know; they are candid and sincere; they love the truth; they admit their ignorance, and they say, “We do not know.”
Robert G. Ingersoll

No man with a sense of humour ever founded a religion.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Ministers say that they teach charity. This is natural. They live on alms. All beggars teach that others should give.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers; it is the only prayer that deserves an answer — good, honest, noble work.
Robert G. Ingersoll

In all ages hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns on the heads of thieves, called kings.
Robert G. Ingersoll

Christianity has such a contemptible opinion of human nature that it does not believe a man can tell the truth unless frightened by a belief in God. No lower opinion of the human race has ever been expressed.
Robert G. Ingersoll

As long as every question is answered by the word “God,” scientific inquiry is simply impossible.
Robert G. Ingersoll

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.
Robert G. Ingersoll

If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn’t pay Smith.
Robert G. Ingersoll