If we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of persons and peoples, history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce. Age after age, the strong have trampled upon the weak; the crafty and heartless have ensnared and enslaved the simple and innocent, and nowhere, in all the annals of mankind, has any god succored the oppressed.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator

Lecture (1872-01-29), “The Gods,” Fairbury Hall, Fairbury, Illinois
    (Source)

First given on the 135th birthday of Thomas Paine. Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876).