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Robert Green Ingersoll
(11 Aug 1833 - 21 Jul 1899)
American lawyer and politician who was a trial lawyer, attorney general of Illinois (1867-69) and also was notable as an agnostic lecturer, attacking popular Christian beliefs.
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Science Quotes by Robert Green Ingersoll (12 quotes)
A few years ago, Science endeavored to show that it was not inconsistent with the bible. The tables have been turned, and now, Religion is endeavoring to prove that the bible is not inconsistent with Science.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In Some Mistakes of Moses (1879), 242.
Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In Lincoln Lecture (1880), in Abraham Lincoln: A Lecture (1895), 46.
Every science has been an outcast.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In 'The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child', The Ghosts: And Other Lectures (1874), 74.
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will, but first let me eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
Epigraph, title page of The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (1902), Vol. 3. Since it is not printed with a citation, Webmaster believes it is attributable to the author of the book.
Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought. An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who
has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star. He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In 'The Great Infidels', The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (1902), Vol. 3, 309.
Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out, let us rather discharge those who do not. Let each teacher understand that investigation is not dangerous for him; that his bread is safe, no matter how much truth he may discover, and that his salary will not be reduced, simply because he finds that the ancient Jews did not know the entire history of the world.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In Some Mistakes of Moses (1879), 27.
Our country will never be filled with great institutions of learning until there is an absolute divorce between Church and School.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In Some Mistakes of Moses (1879), 27.
Our ignorance is God; what we know is science. When we abandon the doctrine that some infinite being created matter and force, and enacted a code of laws for their government ... the real priest will then be, not the mouth-piece of some pretended deity, but the interpreter of nature.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In The Gods, and Other Lectures, (1874), 56.
Reason, Observation, and Experience—the Holy Trinity of Science.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In 'The Gods', The Gods: and Other Lectures (1874, 1879), 86.
We have passed midnight in the great struggle between Fact and Faith, between Science and
Superstition.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In 'The Great Infidels', The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (1902), Vol. 3, 308.
We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the Old World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then brought back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth, agouti, vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the raccoon and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did they get there? Did the polar bear leave his field of ice and journey toward the tropics? How did he know where the ark was? Did the kangaroo swim or jump from Australia to Asia? Did the giraffe, hippopotamus, antelope and orang-outang journey from Africa in search of the ark? Can absurdities go farther than this?
— Robert Green Ingersoll
In Some Mistakes of Moses (1879), 149.
We must remember that in nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
— Robert Green Ingersoll
'Some Reasons Why' (1896) In Lectures and Essays (1907), Series 3, 31.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
