Robert Ingersoll, 1882

A Creed for This World

America's most famous speaker of the 19th century filled theaters arguing for one Life, fully lived. His summary:

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

The hands that help are better far than lips that pray. Labor is the only prayer that nature answers.

I would rather live and love where death is king, than have eternal Life where love is not.

Justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate.

Courage without conscience is a wild beast; conscience without courage is cowardice. But the two together — that is a full human being.