Quotes from The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy — Robert G. Ingersoll
1833–1899 United States
← All quotes by Robert G. Ingersoll
43 quotes
When a statute attacks an individual right, the State must never let it sleep. When it attacks the right of the public at large and is allowed to pass into a state of slumber, it cannot be raised for the purpose of punishing an individual.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
I am a believer in liberty. That is my religion — to give to every other human being every right that I claim for myself, and I grant to every other human being, not the right — because it is his right — but instead of granting I declare that it is his right, to attack every doctrine that I maintain, to answer every argument that I may urge — in other words, he must have absolute freedom of speech.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument, against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the savagery of the men who passed it.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)