Albert Pike

Less glory is more liberty. When the drum is silent, reason sometimes speaks.

He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current... Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.

Let us drink together, fellows, as we did in days of yore. And still enjoy the golden hours that Fortune has in store; The absent friends remembered be, in all that’s sung or said, And Love immortal consecrate the memory of the dead.

War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.

Two forms of government are favorable to the prevalence of falsehood and deceit. Under a Despotism, men are false, treacherous, and deceitful through fear, like slaves dreading the lash. Under a Democracy they are so as a means of attaining popularity and office, and because of the greed for wealth.

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 perfection of truth.

We Masons are among the fortunate ones who are taught to meet together with others opposing convictions or competitive ideas and yet respect each other as Brothers.

Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man's onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason.

Masonry is identical with the Ancient Mysteries

Masonry is a search after Light. That search leads us directly back, as you see, to the Kabalah.

Masonry is not a religion._x000D_ He who makes of it a religious belief, falsifies and denaturalizes it.

Man's real genius and knowledge remains preserved in books

The sovereignty of one's self over one's self is called Liberty.

A war for a great principle ennobles a nation.

Fictions are necessary for the people, and the Truth becomes deadly to those who are not strong enough to contemplate it in all its brilliance. In fact, what can there be in common between the vile multitude and sublime wisdom? The Truth must be kept secret, and the masses need a teaching proportioned to their imperfect reason.