WIST Quotations

Phillips, Wendell -- Speech (1857-01-02), 25th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Faneuil Hall, Boston

Dave — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:17:47 +0000

These [social questions] have all been kept alive in the cauldron of our agitation, and earned us properly, deservedly, the title of “infidel” and “traitor.” “Infidel” to a church that could be at peace in the presence of sin! “Traitor” to a state that was a magnificent conspiracy against justice.

Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) American abolitionist, orator, social activist
Speech (1857-01-02), 25th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Faneuil Hall, Boston

As recorded in The Liberator, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1857-01-09), and the National Anti-Slavery Standard, Vol. 17, No. 35 (1857-01-17).

This is the closest to primary source for a variation of a quote more commonly cited to Phillips:

Write on my gravestone: "Infidel, Traitor" -- infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.”

The earliest I can find this version of the quote in print is in the late 1920s (1927, 1927, 1929) in various Labor / Socialist publications, standing alone as column filler without citation.

Prior to this, I can find examples of a form closer to the one given above:

When I die I wish but two words written on my tombstone -- "Infidel" -- "Traitor." Infidel to a church that can be at peace in the presence of sin; Traitor to a government that is a magnificent conspiracy against justice.

The earliest I find this version is in Oliver Johnson, William Lloyd Garrison and His Time (1879), a quotation from Johnson of a (the same?) speech at Faneuil Hall. It's also mentioned, in whole or in part in:

The Cube (1897-05), mentioned as a quotation from Phillips.
The Advocate of Peace, Vol. 60, No. 9 (1898-10), printing a pacifism speech by William Lloyd Garrison (1898-08-25).
The Labour Annual (1899), as column filler.

While it is possible that Phillips used variations of the same quotation on different occasions (as many orators and lecturers of that time and this do), the clustering of dates with versions suggests to me failures of memory (e.g., Johnson), or intentional tweakings of the text (in the 1920s) to prefer more contemporary language or political usage.

Rufus King Noyes (comp.), Views of Religion (1908), is a list of quotations about (and generally critical of) religion, in the format of giving the name, and then the quotation after this. It includes, attributed in this fashion to Phillips:

When I die, I wish but two words written on my tombstone -- "Infidel" and "Traitor."

The next quotation -- with its name immediately below the above, is from William Dean Howells. I did find misattributions to this and the longer quote made to Howells, probably from a misreading of this book's format.

As a final note, Phillips' gravestone did not end up including either of those words.

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 23:52:13 +0000

Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought.
An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star.
He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Infidel,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:42:39 +0000

INFIDEL, n. […] A kind of scoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mollahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, obeah-men, abbés, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, prebendaries, pilgrims, prophets, imaums, beneficiaries, clerks, vicars-choral, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, preachers, padres, abbotesses, caloyers, palmers, curates, patriarchs, bonzes, santons, beadsmen, canonesses, residentiaries, diocesans, deans, subdeans, rural deans, abdals, charm-sellers, archdeacons, hierarchs, class-leaders, incumbents, capitulars, sheiks, talapoins, postulants, scribes, gooroos, precentors, beadles, fakeers, sextons, reverences, revivalists, cenobites, perpetual curates, chaplains, mudjoes, readers, novices, vicars, pastors, rabbis, ulemas, lamas, sacristans, vergers, dervises, lecturers, churchwardens, cardinals, prioresses, suffragans, acolytes, rectors, curés, sophis, muftis, and pumpums.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Infidel,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-10-10).

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1816-08-06) to Margaret Bayard Smith

Dave — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:51:40 +0000

My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801–09)
Letter (1816-08-06) to Margaret Bayard Smith