Albert Pike

“We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.”

“We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.”

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

“Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other.”

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

“The universal medicine for the Soul is the Supreme Reason and Absolute Justice; for the mind, mathematical and practical Truth; for the body, the Quintessence, a combination of light and gold.”

“To work with the hands or brain, according to our requirements and our capacities, to do that which lies before us to do, is more honorable than rank and title.”

“Will is the dynamic soul-force.”

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

“A war for a great principle ennobles a nation.”

“Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world, have been achieved by poor men; poor scholars, poor professional men, poor artisans and artists, poor philosophers, poets, and men of genius.”

“That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commenced with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.”

“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.”

“The eyes of the cheerful and of the melancholy man are fixed upon the same creation; but very different are the aspects which it bears to them.”

“One man is equivalent to all Creation. One man is a World in miniature.”

“A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.”

“Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted.”