He remains one of the most powerful writers and speakers of the past several hundred years. His work changed my life. Yet many don’t even know his name. Take a few moments, and allow me to introduce you. – Seth
32 thoughts on “The Most Remarkable American Most People Have Never Heard Of”
I've heard of Robert G. Ingersoll. If only Evangelicals today lived by the same things his father, John Ingersoll preached. Humanity, love of one's neighbour, compassion, empathy, etc.
I was introduced to Ingersoll through the movie BORN YESTERDAY. Judy Holiday's character, Billie, speaks of Ingersoll and the Happy Peasant and leads to this exchange
Paul [William Holden]: (quoting Ingersoll) "and I said I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky—with my children upon my knee and their arms about me—I would rather have been that man and gone down to the tongue less silence of the dreamless dust than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder, known as Napoleon the Great."
Billie: …[Harry [played by Broderick Crawford]] probably never heard of Napoleon
Paul: What's worse, he probably never heard of a peasant.
Good Stuff and it made me go to the library and look up Ingersoll
My aunt and uncle used to read me some of the Bible stories you're reading me when I was a boy, between the age of 2 and age 7 yrs. Even then I was curious, I was skeptical, etc. I was like "Really?!" and "How is that possible?!", etc.
The idea that kindness made me start pondering this idea, as it was not expanded upon in the video. These are thevideas I came up with.
Kindness has strength in that it gains you supporters who believe what you believe, or at least people who respect you enough to not treat you badly even though they disagree with you. Kindness can give you a group of individuals who to join you. They have come to the same conclusions as you have because your kindness in sharing your ideas with them allowed them to not reject you and your ideas out of hand. You will then have the strength of a cadre people following their own convictions along side you.
Moreover, you will be able to move forward with fewer impediments because your detractors are more likely to respect you, and so are less likely to inhibit your progress, thus making your path to freedom a much easier one.
That is why I believe kindness will ultimately win out, as long as the kind can withstand attacks from the selfish.
13:45 … "Died of a heart attack in 1899." That's amazing! The prevalence of heart attacks in human history was super rare prior to about 1910. I've been following a lot of health and nutrition stuff for the Last 5 Years, and when it comes to heart attacks that have nothing to do with diet, and more cardiac valvular, having a heart attack was unheard of.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, SETH! for shining a much needed light on this great man and thinker who is so forgotten these days. I really appreciated your video on him. Thank you!
Charles is right, just read the bible there are errors. Jesus even lied to his disciples about the coming of the son of man before the disciples generation passed away. Paul also claimed to get his message from Jesus and told the Thessalonians and Corinthians they would not all die before Jesus returned, which was wrong too!
I loved listening to this Seth, THANK YOU so much! I read a lot of Ingersoll quotes while going thru my own deconversion from Christianity & Fundamentalism. I remember thinking this man is saying things that I have thought & experienced. His writings were like a balm to me as I healed from being shunned & treated as a leper by the members of the church we escaped. Anyhow, may Robert Ingersoll's memory, words & ideas live on! Thanks for all you do too Seth, you are appreciated greatly!
When I was in high school, the whole class loved that line in Invictus, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul". When I went off to college I felt just as Ingersoll felt for I was free to live my life as I wished. The big problem is that our great desire to be free of any authority over us almost completely destroys our ability to know the truth.
Robert Green Ingersoll has been inspirational to me also for years, he was a great human being, beloved by many, his words of long ago still carry value and meaning.
One would be doing themselves a grand favor by researching his works.
"Honesty is the mother of confidence; it unites, combines and solidifies society. Dishonesty is disintegration; it destroys confidence; it brings social chaos. . . ."
The fact that few people know of this man means to me that he is banned, forgotten from history and it's probably hard to find his books or any references to him , I would not doubt that if you were to make his teachings require reading or even did a study on him in history or social studies you would get a protest
Oh wow. This man lived and worked in some of the same towns I grew up in, and I NEVER heard of him until now. He should be a local legend, if not a national one.
There will be no end to religion. Once society collapses it will return with vigor. I truly don't see us making it out of our consumer-driven avarice enough to save the planet and our natural resources. Once the resources run out, society will collapse and it will be superstition and ignorance that takes over. I hate to be the cynical a-hole guy, but there just isn't enough momentum out there to truly change. I work in retail merchandising, it's there that you see the immense waste and sheer amount of useless crap we create, only to throw away. Most never even consider this point. Every party you throw with balloons and other plastic crap, every stupid bobble you buy, every keychain, fridge magnet, toy, etc. it is all just future landfill. The paradox is that if we stopped making this useless crap we'd also lose millions of jobs. See how that works? The change that would have to take place to get us off that precipice, is just too great. And the anarchy that will follow that collapse will return humanity to the imagined higher power to save us from oblivion.
It is so sad that wonderful people like Ingersoll have spoken and written forever but their thinking did not break our religious smog to make us mostly secular. Many suffered instead. The internet and public media need to blast christianity in every instance, explaining how reality is less destructive than the evil control of myth. How do we expect to get free of fascism?
Why has god failed. If god is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If god is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If god knows all, why warn him with our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If god is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If god is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If god is all powerful, how offend him? How resist him? If god is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If god is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If god is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? If he has spoken, why is the world not convinced? It's 1811, I am Percy Bysshe Shelley.
I've heard of Robert G. Ingersoll. If only Evangelicals today lived by the same things his father, John Ingersoll preached. Humanity, love of one's neighbour, compassion, empathy, etc.
Wow, that's a keeper.
hitchens was charitable with believers in religious lies but, didnt mince words with religious leaders, who know the score.
I was introduced to Ingersoll through the movie BORN YESTERDAY. Judy Holiday's character, Billie, speaks of Ingersoll and the Happy Peasant and leads to this exchange
Paul [William Holden]: (quoting Ingersoll) "and I said I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky—with my children upon my knee and their arms about me—I would rather have been that man and gone down to the tongue less silence of the dreamless dust than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder, known as Napoleon the Great."
Billie: …[Harry [played by Broderick Crawford]] probably never heard of Napoleon
Paul: What's worse, he probably never heard of a peasant.
Good Stuff and it made me go to the library and look up Ingersoll
My aunt and uncle used to read me some of the Bible stories you're reading me when I was a boy, between the age of 2 and age 7 yrs. Even then I was curious, I was skeptical, etc. I was like "Really?!" and "How is that possible?!", etc.
The idea that kindness made me start pondering this idea, as it was not expanded upon in the video. These are thevideas I came up with.
Kindness has strength in that it gains you supporters who believe what you believe, or at least people who respect you enough to not treat you badly even though they disagree with you. Kindness can give you a group of individuals who to join you. They have come to the same conclusions as you have because your kindness in sharing your ideas with them allowed them to not reject you and your ideas out of hand. You will then have the strength of a cadre people following their own convictions along side you.
Moreover, you will be able to move forward with fewer impediments because your detractors are more likely to respect you, and so are less likely to inhibit your progress, thus making your path to freedom a much easier one.
That is why I believe kindness will ultimately win out, as long as the kind can withstand attacks from the selfish.
He's a lawyer. There's a law firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA called Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney. Any connection?
One of THE finest humans to ever live. Thank you as always, Seth.
"Crimes against Criminals" was a life changer to me, thanks for giving Ingersoll some love.
Great work 👍🏿❤️🖤👍🏿
Everyone is born atheist.
Religion has to be taught.
Atheism doesn't have to be taught.
The poem would have been better if it stopped at "dust".
13:45 … "Died of a heart attack in 1899."
That's amazing! The prevalence of heart attacks in human history was super rare prior to about 1910. I've been following a lot of health and nutrition stuff for the Last 5 Years, and when it comes to heart attacks that have nothing to do with diet, and more cardiac valvular, having a heart attack was unheard of.
Thanks, this is great stuff! Recently discovered Ingersoll and completely agree with your praise of him and his ideas!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, SETH!
for shining a much needed light on this great man and thinker who is so forgotten these days.
I really appreciated your video on him. Thank you!
remembering the NAME'S that deserve to be said! good one Seth.
Holy guacamole! This was excellent Seth. Thank you for bringing it to life. I'm going to share it with my fiance 🙂
Charles is right, just read the bible there are errors. Jesus even lied to his disciples about the coming of the son of man before the disciples generation passed away. Paul also claimed to get his message from Jesus and told the Thessalonians and Corinthians they would not all die before Jesus returned, which was wrong too!
nothing new under the sun, can't remember where I heard that.
I loved listening to this Seth, THANK YOU so much! I read a lot of Ingersoll quotes while going thru my own deconversion from Christianity & Fundamentalism. I remember thinking this man is saying things that I have thought & experienced. His writings were like a balm to me as I healed from being shunned & treated as a leper by the members of the church we escaped. Anyhow, may Robert Ingersoll's memory, words & ideas live on! Thanks for all you do too Seth, you are appreciated greatly!
When I was in high school, the whole class loved that line in Invictus, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul". When I went off to college I felt just as Ingersoll felt for I was free to live my life as I wished. The big problem is that our great desire to be free of any authority over us almost completely destroys our ability to know the truth.
Robert Green Ingersoll has been inspirational to me also for years, he was a great human being, beloved by many, his words of long ago still carry value and meaning.
One would be doing themselves a grand favor by researching his works.
"Honesty is the mother of confidence; it unites, combines and solidifies society. Dishonesty is disintegration; it destroys confidence; it brings social chaos. . . ."
– Robert Green Ingersoll
The fact that few people know of this man means to me that he is banned, forgotten from history and it's probably hard to find his books or any references to him , I would not doubt that if you were to make his teachings require reading or even did a study on him in history or social studies you would get a protest
Oh wow. This man lived and worked in some of the same towns I grew up in, and I NEVER heard of him until now. He should be a local legend, if not a national one.
Thanks Seth for bringing a spotlight to this great but all but forgotten man. RGI was very instrumental in freeing me from religion
Nothing wrong with polygamy 😂
There will be no end to religion. Once society collapses it will return with vigor. I truly don't see us making it out of our consumer-driven avarice enough to save the planet and our natural resources. Once the resources run out, society will collapse and it will be superstition and ignorance that takes over.
I hate to be the cynical a-hole guy, but there just isn't enough momentum out there to truly change. I work in retail merchandising, it's there that you see the immense waste and sheer amount of useless crap we create, only to throw away. Most never even consider this point. Every party you throw with balloons and other plastic crap, every stupid bobble you buy, every keychain, fridge magnet, toy, etc. it is all just future landfill. The paradox is that if we stopped making this useless crap we'd also lose millions of jobs. See how that works? The change that would have to take place to get us off that precipice, is just too great. And the anarchy that will follow that collapse will return humanity to the imagined higher power to save us from oblivion.
The crime of blasphemy is only invented to protect the fake representatives of a fake god from feeling insulted and being humiliated.
It is so sad that wonderful people like Ingersoll have spoken and written forever but their thinking did not break our religious smog to make us mostly secular. Many suffered instead. The internet and public media need to blast christianity in every instance, explaining how reality is less destructive than the evil control of myth. How do we expect to get free of fascism?
Why has god failed.
If god is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If god is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If god knows all, why warn him with our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If god is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If god is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If god is all powerful, how offend him? How resist him? If god is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If god is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If god is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? If he has spoken, why is the world not convinced?
It's 1811, I am Percy Bysshe Shelley.
I have learned so much with this episode and the recent Tracie Harris episode. Great work Seth, thanks!
Wow! He even discovered the Mount Stupid more than 150 years before Dunning and Kruger (34:48).