Re-quote notes: Ingersoll repeated the same general speech in New York City on October 28, 1880. While he touched on the same ideas, he tailored his delivery to the local crowd and altered the delivery accordingly. This version was cited from news coverage of the event, and it is also found in the 1909 Great Speeches of Col. R.G. Ingersoll:

“Any why should we envy the rich…

   Let me tell you another thing. Lots of these people are owned by the property they think they possess. The property owns them, and it will get them up at 4 o’clock in the morning and will make them work like slaves until night. They are afraid every minute that somebody is going to steal it. They have no confidence in the friendship of man or woman. They think they are all wanting their money. They think their children are anxious to go to their funeral; that all their heirs would love to look on their mausoleum.” (p. 2, columns 5-6)

[Source: “Ingersoll’s Eloquence” (27 October 1896) The Marion Daily Star, Marion, Ohio, Vol. XIX, No. 290; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

Extended excerpt [Speech in support of William McKinley’s presidential campaign.]:

“Why should we envy the rich? Why envy a man who has no earthly needs? Why envy a man that carries a hundred canes? Why envy a man who has that which he cannot use? I know a great many rich men and I have read about a great many others, and I do not envy them. They are no happier than I am. You see, after all, few rich men own their property. The property owns them. It gets them up early in the morning. It will not let them sleep; it makes them suspect their friends. Sometimes they think their children would like to attend a first-class funeral. Why should we envy the rich? They have fear; we have hope. They are on the top of the ladder; we are close to the ground. They are afraid of falling, and we hope to rise.” (pp. 568-569)

Source link [Featured source]: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. IX (1907) online via HathiTrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001850910;view=1up;seq=582

Source link [Ingersoll Re-quote]: “Ingersoll’s Eloquence” (27 October 1896) The Marion Daily Star, via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/299406268

Extended excerpt [Lecture]:

“Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!” (p. 22)

Source link: The Gods and Other Lectures (1874) online via HathiTrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008544317;view=1up;seq=32

Extended excerpt [Lecture]:

“The fact is, very few men are right in everything. Great virtues may draw attention from defects, they cannot sanctify them. A pebble surrounded by diamonds remains a common stone, and a diamond surrounded by pebbles is still a gem. No one should attempt to refute an argument by pronouncing the name of some man, unless he is willing to adopt all the ideas and beliefs of that man. It is better to give reasons and facts than names.” (p. 326)

Source link: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Lectures, Vol. III (1900) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=t_WvHfiC2p8C&pg=PA326&dq=pebble+surrounded+by+diamonds+remains+a+common

Extended excerpt [Speech]:

“I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart – the best brain. Superiority is born of honesty, of virtue, of charity, and above all, of the love of liberty. The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenceless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.” (p. 48)

Source notes: Ingersoll was addressing a rally of people who gathered “to give expression to their views concerning the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which it is held that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional.” Ingersoll was a famous civil rights proponent for American women and minorities, and one of the most famous American orators in his day. He was introduced at the event by reknown civil rights activist & author Frederick Douglass.

Slavery in the U.S. had officially ended in December 1865. On October 15, 1883, the Supreme Court had ruled that two sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were unconstitutional and that only the states – not the federal government – could not seek to prevent acts of private discrimination. The decision, on what is collectively known as “The Civil Rights Cases” (109 U.S. 3), sparked the notorious state-level Jim Crow Laws promoting racial segregation. The Court eventually upheld other powers of Congress to stem discrimination, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Extended excerpt [Speaking in defense of Charles B. Reynolds, a New Jersey man facing possible fines and jail time for “distributing a pamphlet argument against the infallibility of the Bible.” Although Ingersoll’s speech was widely lauded, Reynolds was found guilty and fined $75.]:

“If there is one subject in this world worthy of being discussed, worthy of being understood, it is the question of intellectual liberty. Without that, we are simply painted clay; without that, we are poor, miserable serfs and slaves. If you have not the right to express your opinions, if the defendant has not this right, then no man ever walked beneath the blue of heaven that had the right to express his thought.” (p. 57)

Source note: For a contemporary newspaper account of the Reynolds trial & Ingersoll’s address, please see “On Trial for Blasphemy. Col. Ingersoll’s Defense of Charles B. Reynolds” (20 May 1887) The New York Times, p. 8, column 5 [subscription service]: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/05/20/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=LedeAsset&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article

Source link: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll: Miscellany, Vol. XI (1900) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=kzlTAC0V56UC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=painted%20clay&f=false

Extended excerpt [Commentary]:

“Kindness is strength. Good-nature is often mistaken for virtue, and good health sometimes passes for genius. Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. Intelligence is not the foundation of arrogance. Insolence is not logic. Epithets are the arguments of malice. Candor is the courage of the soul.” (pp. 477-478)

Source note: Part I of Ingersoll’s “The Christian Religion” appeared in the August 1881 issue of North American Review.

Source link: North American Review, Vol. CXXXIII (1881) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=XeGzPpASCMoC&pg=PA477&lpg=PA477&dq=Kindness+is+strength;+anger+blows+out+the+lamp+of+the+mind.+In+the+examination+of+a+great