“The statistics show that a large majority die under five years of age. What would we think of a schoolmaster who killed the most of his pupils the first day?”

— Robert G. Ingersoll

"To the Indianapolis Clergy." The Iconoclast (Indianapolis, IN) (1883)
Context: Some people have insisted that this life is a kind of school for the production of self-denying men and women—that is, for the production of character. The statistics show that a large majority die under five years of age. What would we think of a schoolmaster who killed the most of his pupils the first day? If this doctrine is true, and if manhood cannot be produced in heaven, those who die in childhood are infinitely unfortunate.

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Robert G. Ingersoll439

Union United States Army officer 1833–1899

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