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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.

— 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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What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

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Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Attribution

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.