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Men and women are not virtuous by law. Law itself does not of itself create virtue, nor is it the foundation or fountain of love. Law should protect virtue, and law should protect the wife, if she has kept her contract, and the man, if he has fulfilled his. But the death of love is the end of marriage. Love is natural. Back of all ceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world's history when that torch was extinguished. In all ages, in all climes, among all people, there has been true, pure, and unselfish love.

— Robert G. Ingersoll The Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll (1900)

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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.