Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul.

Robert G. Ingersoll
About This Quote

Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. There are many people who have been totally subjugated to others. They have been told what to do, where to go, and what to think.

They have been so controlled that they don’t even understand their own thoughts. They can’t even recognize their own feelings. The reason for this enslavement is simply because the person has been held back from experiencing life for himself.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love. - Cassandra Clare
  2. Freely we serve Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall. - John Milton
  3. He offered her the world. She said she had her own. - Monique Duval
  4. You are my butterfly and refuse to set you free. - Shannon Hale
  5. From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that... - Arthur Conan Doyle
More Quotes By Robert G. Ingersoll
  1. Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to...
  2. Nothing but truth is immortal.
  3. Not one of the orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows...
  4. When I became convinced that the Universe is natural — that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison...
  5. If the people of Europe had known as much of astronomy and geology when the bible was introduced among them, as they do now, there never could have been one believer in the doctrine of inspiration. If the writers of the various parts of the...
Related Topics