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Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Anger
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Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, everyone should be serene, slow-pulsed and calm.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Bravery
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The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Consequences
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In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Education
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Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Equality
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There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.
-Robert G. Ingersoll, A Lay Sermon
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Faith
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It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions, -- some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said, The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church. On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.
-Robert G. Ingersoll, Essay: Individuality
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Fear
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When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death -- that is heroism.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Forgiveness
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If I owe Smith ten dollars and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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God
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The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Grief, Grieving
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He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his latest breath, I am better now. Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead.
The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead, and every sweet, unselfish act is now a perfumed flower.
-Robert G. Ingersoll, from a eulogy Ingersoll wrote for his brother, Ebon, that was delivered in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 1879
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Happiness
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Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Happiness is not a reward -- it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment -- it is a result.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Help
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He stands erect by bending over the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Heroes/Heroism
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These heroes are dead. They died for liberty - they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest. Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Hope
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Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Justice
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Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Kindness
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Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Labor
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Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Liberty
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The more liberty you give away the more you will have.
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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What light is to the eyes
-Robert G. Ingersoll
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Life
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Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud
-Robert G. Ingersoll, from a eulogy Ingersoll wrote for his brother, Ebon, that was delivered in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 1879
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Books by and about Robert G. Ingersoll