1833–1899 · American orator, lawyer & freethinker (‘The Great Agnostic’)
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran, Illinois lawyer, and the most famous American orator of his day, celebrated for spellbinding lectures championing reason, science, and human happiness over religious dogma — earning him the nickname “The Great Agnostic.” His 1872 lecture “The Gods” closes with the creed that happiness is the only good and “the time to be happy is now,” a line he polished across decades of speaking.