"It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions"
About this Quote
Ingersoll frames dissent not as a romantic luxury, but as society’s quiet life-support system. Calling it “a blessed thing” is a deliberate reversal of the usual moral hierarchy: the virtuous citizen, in his telling, isn’t the obedient one but the person stubborn enough to keep their footing when the crowd leans hard. The sentence is built like a hymn to self-trust, yet it’s really a lawyerly brief for heresy. “In every age” widens the claim beyond any single controversy, suggesting that progress is less a march than a recurring rescue mission carried out by a few people willing to be disliked.
The subtext is Ingersoll’s own biography and moment. As the 19th century’s most famous American agnostic and a fierce defender of free speech and secular government, he spoke in an era when “convictions” were often enforced by church authority, social ostracism, and sometimes law. “Individuality enough” is a pointed phrase: he treats independence as a scarce resource, not an automatic right. “Courage enough” acknowledges the cost. Conviction, here, isn’t private sincerity; it’s public endurance.
What makes the line work is its moral judo. He doesn’t ask you to agree with the dissenter’s beliefs. He asks you to be grateful they exist, because every age manufactures its own orthodoxies and its own punishments. Ingersoll is selling pluralism through admiration: respect the stubborn outlier today, because tomorrow you may need one to save you.
The subtext is Ingersoll’s own biography and moment. As the 19th century’s most famous American agnostic and a fierce defender of free speech and secular government, he spoke in an era when “convictions” were often enforced by church authority, social ostracism, and sometimes law. “Individuality enough” is a pointed phrase: he treats independence as a scarce resource, not an automatic right. “Courage enough” acknowledges the cost. Conviction, here, isn’t private sincerity; it’s public endurance.
What makes the line work is its moral judo. He doesn’t ask you to agree with the dissenter’s beliefs. He asks you to be grateful they exist, because every age manufactures its own orthodoxies and its own punishments. Ingersoll is selling pluralism through admiration: respect the stubborn outlier today, because tomorrow you may need one to save you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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