ful life. He was a good and true and generous man, and "he died
as he lived." Like a great and peaceful river with green and shaded
banks, without a murmur, without a ripple, he flowed into the waveless
ocean of eternal peace. I love him; I love every man who gave me, or
helped to give me the liberty I enjoy tonight; I love every man who
helped me put our flag in heaven. I love every man who has lifted his
voice in any age for liberty, for a chainless body and a fetterless
brain. I love everyman who has given to every other human being every
right that he claimed for himself. I love every man who has thought
more of principle than he has of position. I love the men who have
trampled crowns beneath their feet that they might do something for
mankind, and for that reason I love Thomas Paine.

I thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, every one--every one, for the
attention you have given me this evening.

Ingersoll's Lecture on Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

Ladies and Gentlemen: In my judgment slavery is the child of
ignorance. Liberty is born of intelligence. Only a few years ago there
was a great awakening in the human mind. Men began to inquire, By what
right does a crowned robber make me work for him? The man who asked
this question was called a traitor. Others said, by what right does a
robed priest rob me? That man was called an infidel. And whenever he
asked a question of that kind, the clergy protested. When they found
that the earth was round, the clergy protested; when they found that
the stars were not made out of the scraps that were left over on the
sixth day of creation, but were really great, shining, wheeling worlds,
the clergy protested and said: "When is this spirit of investigation
to stop?" They said then, and they say now, that it is dangerous for
the mind of man to be free. I deny it. Out on the intellectual sea
there is room for every sail. In the intellectual air, there is space
enough for every wing. And the man who does not do his own thinking is
a slave, and does not do his duty to his fellow men. For one, I expect
to do my own thinking. And I will take my own oath this minute that I
will express what thoughts I have, honestly and sincerely. I am the
slave of no man and of no organization. I stand under the blue sky and
the stars, under the infinite flag of nature, the peer of every human
being. Standing as I do in the presence of the Unknown, I have the
same