Skip to content

There is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence.
The history of man is simply the history of slavery, of injustice and brutality, together with the means by which he has, through the dead and desolate years, slowly and painfully advanced.

— Robert G. Ingersoll The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)

Another quote →

Topics

Freedom

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)

All Robert G. Ingersoll quotes →

You may also like

You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

Julian Assange

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

Abraham Lincoln

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.