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

— Robert G. Ingersoll What Is Religion? (1899)

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Source, in full

What Is Religion? (1899) is Ingersoll's last public address, delivered before the American Free Religious association, Boston, June 2, 1899. Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Dresden Memorial Edition Volume IV, pages 477-508, edited by Cliff Walker.

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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)

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)

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences. The life of Christ is worth its example, its moral force, its heroism of benevolence.

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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.