This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.

Ingersoll’s line condenses a liberal, humanist ethic into a single rule of reciprocity: rights are not privileges to be hoarded but claims that must be universalized. The speaker’s “doctrine” rejects caste, sect, and gendered or racial exceptions by making one’s own self-interest the test of justice—if you insist on a liberty, protection, or opportunity for yourself, consistency requires you to extend it to others. The phrasing also reflects Ingersoll’s broader freethought politics: morality grounded in human equality and mutual respect rather than religious authority. It anticipates modern rights-based arguments for civil liberties and equal citizenship.