Albert Pike

“To be tolerant, to be charitable, and to be just are the great duties of a Mason.”

“War is a series of catastrophes which result in a victory.”

“Fidelity to a trust is the first of all virtues.”

“True thoughts are things, and their needs are as real as the needs of the body.”

“The universal subjugation of the thirst for knowledge is the despotism of one portion of humanity over another.”

“Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man's onward progress.”

“Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.”

“A great thought is a great boon to the world; but a great heart, a pure and merciful heart, is a far greater.”

“The great soul that sits on the throne of the universe is not, never was, and never will be, in a hurry.”

“The spoken word is a perilous weapon. It can wound and kill.”

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

“Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning, yet never arriving at the ideal of truth.”

“Man is not perfect. The most fortunate are those who have the fewest faults.”

“Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world, have been achieved by poor men.”

“Religion, to be effective, must be part of a man's very soul, a matter of his life and death.”

“What is truer than truth? Answer: The story.”

“That which is Below is like that which is Above, and that which is Above is like that which is Below, to do the miracles of one only thing.”

“To work, to worship, and to love—this is the whole of life.”

“We have all the same Divine spark in us. In all languages, in all ages, the same voices have been heard from the same great prophets.”

“Pride is not the heritage of man; humility should dwell with frailty, and atone for ignorance, error, and imperfection.”