Ingersollia: Gems of Thought from the Lectures, Speeches, and Conversations of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Representative of His Opinions and BeliefsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Ingersollia: Gems of Thought from the Lectures, Speeches, and Conversations of Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Representative of His Opinions and Beliefs
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833-1899 -- Quotations
Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out, let us
rather discharge those who do not. Let each teacher understand that
investigation is not dangerous for him; that his bread is safe, no
matter how much truth he may discover, and that his salary will not be
reduced, simply because he finds that the ancient Jews did not know the
entire history of the world.
58. Developement
I thought after all I had rather belong to a race of people that came
from skulless vertebrae in the dim Laurentian period, that wiggled
without knowing they were wiggling, that began to develope and came up
by a gradual developement until they struck this gentleman in the dugout
coming up slowly--up--up--up--until, for instance, they produced such a
man as Shakespeare--he who harvested all the fields of dramatic thought,
and after whom all others have been only gleaners of straw, he who found
the human intellect dwelling in a hut, touched it with the wand of his
genius and it became a palace--producing him and hundreds of others I
might mention--with the angels of progress leaning over the far horizon
beckoning this race of work and thought--I had rather belong to a race
commencing at the skulless vertebrae producing the gentleman in the
dugout and so on up, than to have descended from a perfect pair, upon
which the Lord has lost money from that day to this. I had rather belong
to a race that is going up than to one that is going down. I would
rather belong to one that commenced at the skulless vertebrae and
started for perfection, than to belong to one that started from
perfection and started for the skulless vertebrae.
59. Poet's Dream
When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a university, every
clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave and honest
thinkers, then, and not until then, will the dream of poet, patriot,
philanthropist and philosopher, become a real and blessed truth.
60. The Temple of the Future
We are laying the foundations of the grand temple of the future--not the
temple of all the gods, but of all the people--wherein, with appropriate
rites, will be celebrated the religion of Humanity. We are doing what
little we can to hasten the coming of the day when society shall cease
producing millionaires and mendicants--gorged indolence and famished
industry--truth in rags, and superstition robed and crowned. We are
looking for the time when the useful shall be the honorable; and when
Reason, throned upon the world's brain, shall be the King of Kings, and
God of Gods.
61. The final Goal
We do not expect to accomplish everything in our day; but we want to
do what good we can, and to render all the service possible in the
holy cause of human progress. We know that doing away with gods and
supernatural persons and powers is not an end. It is a means to the end;
the real end being the happiness of man.
62. The Eighteenth Century
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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