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Why, gentlemen, humor is one of the most valuable things in the human brain. It is the torch of the mind -- it sheds light. Humor is the readiest test of truth -- of the natural, of the sensible -- and when you take from a man all sense of humor, there will only be enough left to make a bigot.

— Robert G. Ingersoll The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)

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More quotes by Robert G. Ingersoll

The present is the child, and the necessary child, of all the past, and the mother of all the future.

How To Reform Mankind (1896)

The present is the necessary product of all the past, the necessary cause of all the future.

What Is Religion? (1899)

By comparing long periods of time, we more clearly perceive the advance that has been made.

How To Reform Mankind (1896)

I had rather live and love where death is king, than have eternal life where love is not.

At A Child's Grave (1882)

The more false we destroy the more room there will be for the true.

Orthodoxy (1884)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert G. Ingersoll (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.