Less glory is more liberty. When the drum is silent, reason sometimes speaks.
Albert PikeRead
Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy is an ongoing exploration of knowledge, always striving for truth but never fully attaining it.
In this quote, Albert Pike emphasizes that philosophy is not a destination but an enduring exploration of ideas and concepts. It highlights the idea that while we may seek ultimate truths and understanding, the pursuit itself is a continuous journey of learning, reflection, and discovery—one that may never lead to a complete or perfect understanding of reality.
Themes
PhilosophyJourneyTruthLearningKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the nature of philosophical inquiry, this quote can illustrate the importance of the learning process.
More from Albert Pike
All quotes →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.
Albert PikeRead
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.
Albert PikeRead
War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.
Albert PikeRead
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.
Albert PikeRead
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
Albert PikeRead
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Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid.
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The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.
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I fear that, with our current veneration for the natural and the real, we have arrived at the opposite pole to all idealism, and have landed in the region of the waxworks.
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