Robert Green Ingersoll Quotes About Belief

Quotes about: Belief

• Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Ignorance, Miracle, Religion

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1070, Library of Alexandria

• 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 Green Ingersoll

  Believe, Men, Race

  Joseph Lewis, Robert Green Ingersoll (1957). “Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage”

• Most men are followers, and implicitly rely upon the judgment of others. They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and regard a grave countenance as the title page and Preface to a most learned volume. So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. And when the teaching of parents, the customs of neighbors, and the general tongue approve and justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, it is hard even for the strongest to hold the citadel of his soul. In each country, in defence of each religion, the same arguments would be urged.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Country, Wisdom, Mistake

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.773, Library of Alexandria

• Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Choices, Matter, Belief

• If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion's sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Hate, Believe, Men

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Interviews”

• Catholicism is contrary to human liberty. Catholicism bases salvation upon belief. Catholicism teaches man to trample his reason under foot. And for that reason it is wrong.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Men, Feet, Religion

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.277, Library of Alexandria

• They say: Belief is important. I say: No, actions are important. Judge by deed, not by creed.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Judging, Important, Deeds

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.287, Library of Alexandria

• One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Religion, Denial, Facts

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.929, Library of Alexandria

• No one can control his own opinion or his own belief. My belief was forced upon me by my surroundings. I am the product of all circumstances that have in any way touched me.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Way, Opinion, Belief

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1909). “Interviews”

• Give any orthodox church the power, and to-day they would punish heresy with whip, and chain, and fire. As long as a church deems a certain belief essential to salvation, just so long it will kill and burn if it has the power.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Fire, Giving, Long

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.119, Library of Alexandria

• For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said "Think" The many have said "Believe!"

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Faith, Religious, War

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.51, Library of Alexandria

• For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Fashion, Heirs, Belief

  Robert Green Ingersoll (2004). “Superstition and Other Essays”

• It seems to me impossible for a civilized man to love or worship, or respect the God of the Old Testament. A really civilized man, a really civilized woman, must hold such a God in abhorrence and contempt... In the New Testament, death is not the end, but the beginning of punishment that has no end. In the New Testament the malice of God is infinite and the hunger of his revenge eternal... This frightful dogma, this infinite lie, made me the implacable enemy of Christianity. The truth is that this belief in eternal pain has been the real persecutor.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Pain, Revenge, Real

• When a man really believes that it is necessary to do a certain thing to be happy forever, or that a certain belief is necessary to ensure eternal joy, there is in that man no spirit of concession. He divides the whole world into saints and sinners, into believers and unbelievers, into God's sheep and Devil's goats, into people who will be glorified and people who are damned.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Believe, Men, Sheep

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.444, Library of Alexandria

• Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, than there are leaves in all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in Hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Atheist, Children, Pain

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.216, Library of Alexandria

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