Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal mean… - Robert Green Ingersoll
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Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases, and pollutes even the vilest soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in the universe, no good being can be perfectly happy.
Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a lawyer, a Civil War veteran, political leader, and orator of the United States during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic".
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Robert Ingersoll
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The Great Agnostic
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Robert G. Ingersoll
Portrait from Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy. Used under Public domain / CC0. Processed and styled by Quotewise.
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<sup>23.</sup> “But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. <sup>24.</sup> “And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.”<sup>— Deut. Vii.</sup> If these words had proceeded from the mouth of a demon, if they had been spoken by some enraged and infinitely malicious fiend, I should not have been surprised. But these things are attributed to a God of infinite mercy.
Every cradle asks us, "Whence?" and every coffin, "Whither?" The poor barbarian, weeping above his dead, can answer these questions as intelligently as the robed priest of the most authentic creed.
Religion can never reform mankind, because religion is slavery.
