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).