Albert Pike (December 29, 1809 – April 2, 1891) was an American attorney, soldier, writer, and Freemason.
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.
Man's real genius and knowledge remains preserved in books
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.
Before God manifested Himself, when all things were still hidden in Him. . . He began by forming an imperceptible point; that was His own thought. With this thought He then began to construct a mysterious and holy form. . . the Universe.
Our adversaries, numerous and formidable, will say, and will have the right to say, that our Principe CrÇateur is identical with the Principe GÇnÇrateur of the Indians and Egyptians, and may fitly be symbolized as it was symbolized anciently, by the linage. . . To accept this in lieu of a personal God is to abandon Christianity and worship of Jehovah and return to wallow in the styles of Paganism.
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.
If, anywhere, brethren of a particular religious belief have been excluded from this Degree [18° Knight Rose Croix], it merely shows how gravely the purposes and plan of Masonry may be misunderstood. For whenever the door of any Degree is closed against him who believes in one God and the soul's immortality, on account of the other tenets of his faith, that Degree is Masonry no longer.
Man is not to be comprehended as a starting-point, or progress as a goal, without those two great forces , Faith and Love. Prayer is sublime.
The word well spoken, the deed fitly done, even by the feeblest or humblest, cannot help but have their effect. More or less, the effect is inevitable and eternal.
The Secret of the Occult Sciences is that of Nature itself, the Secret of the generation of the Angels and Worlds, that of the Omnipotence of God.
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.
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.
Will is the dynamic soul-force.
The Blue Degrees are but the outer court. . . of the temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretation. It is not intended that he shall understand them, but it is intended that he shall imagine that he understands them. . . The true explanation is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry (those of the 32nd and 33rd degrees)
Death is the inseparable antecedent of life; the seed dies in order to produce the plant, and earth itself is rent asunder and dies at the birth of Dionusos. Hence the significancy of the phallus, or of its inoffensive substitute, the obelisk, rising as an emblem of resurrection by the tomb of buried Deity at Lerna or at Sais.
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.
War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.
I took my obligations from white men, not from negroes. When I have to accept negroes as brothers or leave masonry, I shall leave it
The true philosophy, known and practiced by Solomon, is the basis on which Masonry is founded.
The Word of God is the universal and invisible Light, cognizable by the senses, that emits its blaze in the Sun, Moon, Planets, and other Stars.