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date: 18 May 2025

Robert G. Ingersoll 1833–99
American agnostic 

  1. A believer is a songless bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wings.
    An Arraignment of the Church, and a Plea for Individuality (1877)
  2. An honest God is the noblest work of man.
    The Gods (1876) pt. 1; see Pope
  3. In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments—there are consequences.
    Some Reasons Why (1881) pt. 8 ‘The New Testament’
  4. 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 the Church’.
    ‘Individuality’ (lecture, 1873); see Magellan
  5. The only person entitled to use the imperial ‘we’ in speaking of himself is a king, an editor, and a man with a tapeworm.
    in Los Angeles Times 6 October 1914