Robert Green Ingersoll Atheism Quotations

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

All religion is slavery.

Every church that has a standard higher than human welfare is dangerous.

Ignorance worships mystery; reason explains it; the one grovels, the other soars.

Nothing could be more idiotic and absurd than the doctrine of the trinity.

Fear paints pictures of ghosts and hangs them in the gallery of ignorance.

If God objected to [people with various handicaps], he ought not have created such people.

We are not accountable for the sins of "Adam".

Only a few years ago there was no person too ignorant to successfully answer Charles Darwin; and the more ignorant he was the more cheerfully he undertook the task.

The Church demonstrated the falsity and folly of Darwin's theories by showing that they contradicted the Mosaic account of creation, and now that the theories of Darwin having been fairly established, the Church says that the Mosaic account is true because it is in harmony with Darwin. Now, if it should turn out that Darwin was mistaken, what then?

The moment you introduce a despotism in the world of thought, you succeed in making hypocrites - and you get in such a position that you never know what your neighbor thinks.

They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.

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

The ministers, who preached at these revivals, were in earnest. They were zealous and sincere. They were not philosophers. To them science was the name of a vague dread - a dangerous enemy. They did not know much, but they believed a great deal.

The old lady who said there must be a devil, else how could they make pictures that looked exactly like him, reasoned like a trained theologian - like a doctor of divinity.

The churches have no confidence in each other. Why? Because they are acquainted with each other.

The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.

In the presence of death I affirm and reaffirm the truth of all that I have said against the superstitions of the world. I would say that much on the subject with my last breath.

Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment.

Nothing is greater than to break the chains from the bodies of men - nothing nobler than to destroy the phantom of the soul.

Twenty years after the death of Luther there were more Catholics than when he was born. And twenty years after the death of Voltaire there were millions less than when he was born.

Strange but true: those who have loved God most have loved men least.

I read the other day an account of a meeting between John Knox and John Calvin. Imagine a dialogue between a pestilence and a famine!

If, with all the time at my disposal, with all the wealth of the resources of this vast universe, to do with as I will, I could not produce a better scheme of life than now prevails, I would be ashamed of my efforts and consider my work a humiliating failure.

It is told that the great Angelo, in decorating a church, painted some angels wearing sandals. A cardinal looking at the picture said to the artist: Whoever saw angels with sandals? Angelo answered with another question: Whoever saw an angel barefooted?

Honest investigation is utterly impossible within the pale of any church, for the reason, that if you think the church is right you will not investigate, and if you think it wrong, the church will investigate you.

If all the historic books of the Bible were blotted from the memory of mankind, nothing of value would be lost..

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.

Too much doubt is better than too much credulity.

As long as every question is answered by the word "God," scientific inquiry is simply impossible.

It has always seemed to me that a being coming from another world, with a message of infinite importance to mankind, should at least have verified that message by his own signature. Is it not wonderful that not one word was written by Christ?

Blasphemy is what an old dogma screams at a new truth.

Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth - each of the other.