Crimes were committed to punish crimes, and crimes were committed to prevent crimes. The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen
—Robert Ingersoll
My creed is this: Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.
—Robert Ingersoll
The moment a man gets money, so many men are trying to get it away from him that in a little while he regards the whole human race as his enemy, and he generally thinks that they could be rich too if they would only attend to business as he has. Understand, I am not blaming these people.… We must remember that these rich men are naturally produced. Do not blame them. Blame the system.
—Robert Ingersoll
Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
—Robert Ingersoll
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
—Robert Ingersoll