Atheism could never be an institution in this country; it could never be more than a destitution.

Sermon, March 5, 1882, quoted in The New York Times, vol. 31, no. 9,514 (March 6, 1882) p. 8, col. 1. Slightly different version quoted in Josiah H. Gilbert, Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (Troy, NY: H. B. Nims and Co, 1883) p. 218: "Ingersoll's atheism can never become an institution; it can never be more than a destitution."