Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.

Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.

I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?

I'm disturbed when people let superstition, magical thinking, extreme conspiracy theories and so on blur their minds.

The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof.

The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous.

If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves they should value evidence. If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument would you invoke to prove they should value logic?

The beauty of science hugely outranks the charms of superstition.

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

You should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that 'Diax's Rake.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Unlike the masses, intellectuals have a taste for rationality and an interest in facts.

I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. How can we tell the difference between what we would like to be true and what is actually true? The answer is science.

Belief is desecrated when given to unproved and unquestioned statements for the solace and private pleasure of the believer . . . It is wrong always, everywhere, and for every one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

Why understand when you can believe?

You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors.

Unscientific man is beset by a deplorable desire to have been right. The scientist is distinguished by a desire to be right.

Science built the Academy, superstition the Inquisition.

Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse.