Quotes By Author: joseph lewis

“When I visited George Bernard Shaw, in 1948, at his home in Aylot, a suburb of London, he was extremely anxious for me to tell him all that I knew about Ingersoll. During the course of the conversation, he told me that Ingersoll had made a tremendous impression upon him, and had exercised an influence upon him probably greater than that of any other man. He seemed particularly anxious to impress me with the importance of Ingersoll’s influence upon his intellectual endeavors and accomplishments.In view of this admission, what percentage of the greatness of Shaw belongs to Ingersoll? If Ingersoll’s influence upon so great an intellect as George Bernard Shaw was that extensive, what must have been his influence upon others?What seed of wisdom did he plant into the minds of others, and what accomplishments of theirs should be attributed to him? The world will never know.What about the countless thousands from whom he lifted the clouds of darkness and fear, and who were emancipated from the demoralizing dogmas and creeds of ignorance and superstition?What will be Ingersoll’s influence upon the minds of future generations, who will come under the spell of his magic words, and who will be guided into the channels of human betterment by the unparalleled example of his courageous life?The debt the world owes Robert G. Ingersoll can never be paid.”

“It is the antagonism of the dogmatic world, and the apathy of the rest, that is the cause of the mental progress of the world’s not keeping pace with the material progress.Better still, the universal application of the material progress has been far in advance of the universal acceptance of mental achievement. The automobile, the gigantic ocean liner, the talking machine, the electric fan, the elevator, the telephone and the other marvelous achievements of man are being used by the greater portion of the people, whose mental status belongs to the wheelbarrow, the simple chair, the ox cart and the tallow candle.Slight is the realization by the users and beneficiaries of science’s modern methods, of the heroic struggles and battles that the great men and women of the past suffered to make possible these accomplishments.Oh, how many suffered torture and death at the hands of the very people they were striving to benefit!”

“Remember this: There will never be a solution to any of our fundamental problems, and mankind will never, in the full sense of the word, be free, as long as there exists in the human mind the insanity of religious belief. As long as God occupies a portion of our thoughts, mankind must be content to suffer the hatred and antagonism of man.”