Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Vol. I by Robert G. Ingersoll

Law itself does not of itself create virtue, nor is it the foundation or fountain of love. Men and women are not virtuous by law.

The life of Christ is worth its example, its moral force, its heroism of benevolence. There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences. I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to the merciful. Every human being longs to be happy, to satisfy the wants of the body with food, with roof and raiment, and to feed the hunger of the mind, according to his capacity, with love, wisdom, philosophy, art and song. We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves. All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. The more false we destroy the more room there will be for the true. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. The present is the child, and the necessary child, of all the past, and the mother of all the future. By comparing long periods of time, we more clearly perceive the advance that has been made. The present is the necessary product of all the past, the necessary cause of all the future. The way to be happy is to make others so. Quotes While utterly discarding all creeds, and denying the truth of all religions, there is neither in my heart nor upon my lips a sneer for the hopeful, loving and tender souls who believe that from all this discord will result a perfect harmony that every evil will in some mysterious way become a good, and that above and over all there is a being who, in some way, will reclaim and glorify every one of the children of men. 'Flaws in Ingersollism.' The North American Review 150, no. 1.21 Answer to Lyman Abbott (unfinished), responding to Abbott, Lyman.

1.20 What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide? (1900).

1.13 'Rome, or Reason? A Reply to Cardinal Manning.

1.10 'The Brooklyn Divines.' Brooklyn Union (Brooklyn, NY), 1883.

1.9 'To the Indianapolis Clergy.' The Iconoclast (Indianapolis, IN) (1883).

1.5 Interview with the Chicago Times, Feb.

1.4 The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877).

1.3 My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA).

Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Vol. I by Robert G. Ingersoll