The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
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The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
That is why I like this country. That is why I do not want it
dishonored. I want no class feeling. The citizens of America should be
friends. Where capital is just and labor intelligent, happiness dwells.
Fortunate that country where the rich are extravagant and the poor
economical. Miserable that country where the rich are economical and the
poor are extravagant. A rich spendthrift is a blessing. A rich miser is
a curse. Extravagance is a splendid form of charity. Let the rich spend,
let them build, let them give work to their fellow-men, and I will find
no fault with their wealth, provided they obtained it honestly.
There was an old fellow by the name of Socrates. He happened to be
civilized, living in a barbarous time, and he was tried for his life.
And in his speech in which he defended himself is a paragraph that ought
to remain in the memory of the human race forever.
He said to those judges, "During my life I have not sought ambition,
wealth. I have not sought to adorn my body, but I have endeavored to
adorn my soul with the jewels of patience and justice, and above all,
with the love of liberty." Such a man rises above all wealth.
Why should we envy the rich? Why envy a man who has no earthly needs?
Why envy a man that carries a hundred canes? Why envy a man who has that
which he cannot use? I know a great many rich men and I have read about
a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than
I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property
owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them
sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their
children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we
envy the rich? They have fear; we have hope. They are on the top of the
ladder; we are close to the ground. They are afraid of falling, and we
hope to rise.
Why should we envy the rich? They never drank any colder water than I
have. They never ate any lighter biscuits or any better corn bread. They
never drank any better Illinois wine, or felt better after drinking it,
than I have; than you have. They never saw any more glorious sunsets
with the great palaces of amethyst and gold, and they never saw the
heavens thicker with constellations; they never read better poetry. They
know no more about the ecstasies of love than we do. They never got any
more pleasure out of courting than I did. Why should we envy the rich?
I know as much about the ecstasies of love of wife and child and friends
as they. They never had any better weather in June than I have, or you
have. They can buy splendid pictures. I can look at them. And who owns
a great picture or a great statue? The man who bought it? Possibly, and
possibly not. The man who really owns it, is the man who understands
it, that appreciates it, the man into whose heart its beauty and genius
come, the man who is ennobled and refined and glorified by it.
They have never heard any better music than I have.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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