Daily Inspiration Quote by Robert G. Ingersoll

The fortunate should assist the victims of accident; the strong should defend the weak, and the intellectual should lead, with loving hands, the mental poor; but justice should remove the bandage from her eyes long enough to distinguish between the vicious and the unfortunate. (Essay: “Prof. Van Buren Denslow’s ‘Modern Thinkers’” (preface)). This sentence appears in Robert G. Ingersoll’s preface titled “PROF. VAN BUREN DENSLOW’S ‘MODERN THINKERS.’” in the Dresden Edition of Ingersoll’s collected works (Volume XII, “Miscellany”). ([infidels.org](https://infidels.org/library/historical/robert-ingersoll-modern-thinkers/)) The same line is also used as an epigraph on the title page of “The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll” Volume X (Legal) in the same Dresden Edition collected-works set. ([gutenberg.org](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38810/38810-h/38810-h.htm)) However, the epigraph usage does not establish when Ingersoll first wrote/spoke it, only that it was selected as a motto for that volume. IMPORTANT LIMITATION (re: ‘FIRST published/spoken’): I was able to verify the quote in Ingersoll’s own collected works (a primary-source text of Ingersoll’s writings), but I could not, from the accessible sources in this search, determine the earliest *first* appearance in print or speech (e.g., whether it first appeared in an earlier standalone publication, periodical appearance of the preface, or earlier speech). One strong lead is that the quote is embedded in his preface to Denslow’s book “Modern Thinkers,” for which a digitized scan indicates an 1880 publication date for Denslow’s book. ([commons.wikimedia.org](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AModern_thinkers_principally_upon_social_science%3B_what_they_think_and_why%3B_%28IA_modernthinkerspr00densuoft%29.pdf)) But I cannot confirm from the scan itself (within this tool session) the exact page number on which the sentence appears in that 1880 volume, nor can I confirm whether Ingersoll delivered/published it eve...