• A Lodge is not held together with steel bands, but by the silken ties of brotherhood, woven of interest, friendliness, good times, wholesome fraternal intercourse. 
   
• A Mason is not necessarily a member of a lodge. In a broad sense, he is any person who daily tries to live the Masonic life, and to serve intelligently the needs of the Great Architect. 
   
• A surprise inspection, by the Grand Architect of the Universe, of the Temple of the Heart of a true Mason will probably find more flaws to be corrected but will never find rust on the Tilers sword of the true Mason
   
• As we continue to improve ourselves in Masonry, we are indeed improving life. We know from history that without ideals to guide us, the garden of a man's life will not grow into a place of beauty. - Stanley F. Maxwell 
   
• Because of this ever increasing discernment of the true Mason he/she will find more efficient ways to apply brotherly love, relief and truth. 
   
• Being persuaded that a just application of the principles, on which the Masonic Fraternity is founded, must be promote of private virtue and public prosperity, I shall always be happy to advance the interests of the Society, and to be considered by them as a deserving brother. - George Washington 
   
• Brother, I, too, own a television set, but that does not keep me at home on lodge night. I have never yet had one of the characters on television come off the screen and shake my hand. They have never offered me the warm friendship that my lodge brothers do. They have never handed me a cup of coffee or a doughnut. No! Never! 
   
• Brotherly love, belief, truth, temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice these are far more potent to human development, to human relations, to human life, than are the rules of science. It is simply a question of physical of spiritual values. - L. L. Williams 
   
• Brotherly love is not a tangible commodity. We cannot touch it or weigh it, smell it of taste it. Yet it is a reality; it can be creative, it can be fostered, it can be made a dynamic power. The Master who has it in his Lodge and his brethren will find that Lodge and brethren give it back to him. The Master too worried over the cares of his office to express friendliness need never wonder why his Lodge seems too cold to his effort. - Carl H. Claudy 
   
• During the time I have been in the army, I never knew a bad soldier who was a Freemason. - Duke of Wellington 
   
• Each lodge is an oasis if equality and good will in a desert of strife, working to wield mankind into a great league of sympathy and services, which, by the terms of our definition, it seeks to exhibit now on a small scale. - J. F. Newton 
   
• Everything which tends to combine men by stronger ties is useful to humanity; in this point of view Masonry is entitled to respect. - LaLande 
   
• Its laws are reason and equity; its principles benevolence and love; and its religion purity and truth; its intention is peace on earth; and its disposition good-will toward men. - Brother and Reverend T.M. Harris 
   
• Flattering as it may be to the human mind, and truly honorable as it is to receive from our fellow citizens testimonies of approbation for exertions to promote the public welfare, it is not less pleasing to know that the milder virtues of the heart are highly respected by a Society whose liberal principles must be founded in the immutable laws of truth and justice. To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished that the conduct of every member of the Fraternity, as well as those publications that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the great object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race. - George Washington 
   
• For centuries had Freemasonry existed ere modern political controversies were ever heard of, and when the topics which now agitate society were not known, but were all united in brotherhood and affection. I know the institution to be founded on the great principles of charity, philanthropy and brotherly love. -Bulwer 
   
• Freemasonry embraces the highest moral laws and will bear the test of any system of ethics or philosophy ever promulgated for the uplift of man. -Douglas McArther 
   
• Freemasonry is a science of symbols, in which, by their proper study, a search is instituted after truth, that truth consisting in the knowledge of the divine and human nature of God and the human Soul. - DR. A. G. MacKey 
   
• Freemasonry is a moral order, instituted by virtuous men, with the praiseworthy design of recalling to our remembrance the most sublime truths, in the midst of the most innocent and social pleasures, founded on liberality, brotherly love and charity. 
   
• Freemasonry is an ancient and respectable institution, embracing individuals of every nation, of every religion, and of every condition in life. Wealth, power and talents are not necessary to the person of a Freemason. An unblemished character and a virtuous conduct are the only qualifications for admission into the Order. 
   
• Freemasonry is an establishment founded on the benevolent intention of extending and conferring mutual happiness upon the best and truest principles of moral life and social virtue. 
   
• Freemasonry is an institution calculated to benefit mankind. - Andrew Jackson 
   
• Freemasonry is an institution essentially philanthropic and progressive, which has for its basis the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. It has for its object the exercise of benevolence, the study of universal morality, and the practice of all the virtues. - Constitution Grand Orient of France 
   
• Freemasonry is an institution founded on eternal reason and truth; whose deep basis is the civilization of mankind, and whose everlasting glory it is to have the immovable support of those two mighty pillars, science and morality. 
   
• Freemasonry is an order whose leading star is philanthropy and whose principles inculcate an unceasing devotion to the cause of virtue and morality. 
   
• Freemasonry is founded on the immutable laws of Truth and Justice and its grand object is to promote the happiness of the human race. - George Washington 
   
• Freemasonry is 'veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols' because these are the surest way by which moral and ethical truths may be taught. It is not only with the brain and with the mind that the initiate must take Freemasonry but also with the heart. - C. H. Claudy 
   
• Freemasonry has become the preserver of certain traditions and ideas, but it rarely questions the values and quality of some of these ideas. - Conrad Hahn 
   
• Freemasonry has endured not because of its antiquity, its influence, or its social standing, but because there have been so many who have lived it. The effectiveness of Masonic teachings will always be the measure by which the outside world judges Freemasonry; the proof of Freemasonry is in our deeds and it is in our deeds that Freemasonry is made known to non-Masons. The only way that the Craft can be judged is by its product. The prestige of Freemasonry lies squarely on the shoulders of each of us. - Bro. G. Wilbur Best 
   
• Freemasonry has promoted fellowship, it has nurtured brotherhood, it has practiced charity. It has education, it has been founded on truth and the cardinal virtues. But what is Masonry's greatest mission in life today? What should be the thrust of modern Masonry? Those are the answers we are presently seeking, and on our success in finding the answer depends the future of our Fraternity. 
   
• Freemasonry has tenets peculair to itself. They serve as testmonials of character and qualifications, which are only conferred after due course of instruction and examination. These are of no small value; they speak a universal language, and act as a passport to the attentions and support of the initiated in all parts of the world. They cannot be lost as long as memory retains its power. Let the possessor of them be expatriated, shipwrecked or imprisoned, let him be stripped of everything he has got in the world, still those credentials remain, and are available for use as circumstances require. The good effects they have produced are established by the most incontestable facts of history. They have stayed the uplifted hand of the destroyer; they have softened the asperities of the tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have subdued the rancour of malevolence; and broken down the barriers of political animosity and sectarian alienation. On the field of battle, in the solitudes of the uncultivated forest, or in the busy haunts of the crowded city, they have made men of the most hostile feelings, the most distant regions, and diversified conditions, rush to the aid of each other, and feel a special joy and satisfaction that they have been able to afford relief to a Brother Mason. - Benjamin Franklin 
   
• Freemasonry must stand upon the Rock of Truth, religion, political, social, and economic. Nothing is so worthy of its care as freedom in all its aspects. "Free" is the most vital part of Freemasonry. It means freedom of thought and expression, freedom of spiritual and religious ideals, freedom from oppression, freedom from ignorance, superstition, vice and bigotry, freedom to acquire and possess property, to go and come at pleasure, and to rise or fall according to will of ability. 
   
• Freemasonry teaches not merely temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, brotherly love, relief, and truth, but liberty, equality, and fraternity, and it denounces ignorance, superstition, bigotry, lust tyranny and despotism. 
   
• From its origin to the present hour, in all its vicissitudes, Masonry has been the steady unwearing friend of man. 
   
• Give the brethren a chance to do something, anything, no matter how small or unimportant. A brother convinced that he is helpful is enthusiastic. 
   
• Going to Lodge does make anyone a mason more than standing in a garage makes them a car. 
   
• Gradually the true Mason gains experience in using these working tools and can observe subtler and subtler indications of personal flaws. 
   
• Grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all the years a brother not of words but of acts and deeds. 
   
• I ask of each Mason, of each member, of each brother, that he shall remember ever that there is upon him a peculiar obligation to show himself in every respect a good citizen; for after all, the way he can best do his duty by the ancient order to which he belongs is by reflecting credit upon that order by way in which he performs his duty as a citizen of the United States. - Theodore Rosevelt 
   
• I have ever felt it my duty to support and encourage the principles and practice of Freemasonry, because it powerfully develops all social and benevolent affections, because it mitigates without, and annihilates within, the violence of political and theological controversy; because it affords the only neutral ground on which all ranks and classes can meet in perfect equality, and associate without degradation or mortification, whether for purposes of moral instruction or social intercourse. - Earl of Durham 
   
• I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson 
   
• I highly venerate the Masonic Institution, under the fullest persuasion that, when its principles are acknowledged and its laws and precepts obeyed, it comes nearest to the Christian religion, in its moral effects and influence, of any institution with which I am acquainted. 
   
• I regard the Masonic institution as one of the means ordained by the Supreme Architect to enable mankind to work out the problem of destiny; to fight against, and overcome, the weaknesses and imperfections of his nature, and at last to attain to that true life of which death is the herald and the grave the portal. 
   
• I think we are warranted in contending that a society thus constituted, and which may be rendered so admirable an engine of improvement, far from meriting reproach, deserves highly of the community. 
   
• I violate no secret when I say that one of the greatest values in Masonry is that it affords an opportunity for men of all walks of life to meet on common ground where all men are equal and have one common interest. - Theodore Roosevelt 
   
• In this resistance the true Mason searches for indications of personal flaws in order to put them on his agenda for correction. 
   
• It has not been my fortune to know very much of Freemasonry, but I have had the great fortune to know many Freemasons and have been able in that way to judge the tree by its fruit. I know of your high ideals. I have seen that you hold your meetings in the presence of the open Bible, and I know that men who observe that formality have high sentiments of citizenship, of worth, and character. That is the strength of our Commonwealth and nation. - Calvin Coolidge 
   
• It is most reverently to be wished, that the conduct of every member of the fraternity, as well as those publications that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race. - George Washington 
   
• It is most true, that Truth is a Divine attribute and the foundation of every virtue. To be true, and to seek to find and learn the Truth, are the great objects of every good Mason. - Albert Pike 
   
• It is noble in its administration: to think and let think, beyond the narrow contracted prejudices of bitter sectarians in these modern times. It is general or universal language, fitted to benefit the poor stranger, which no other institution is calculated to reach, by extending the beneficent hand. 
   
• It is not what we eat, but what we digest … that makes us strong.
  It is not what we earn, but what we save … that makes us rich.
  It is not what we read, but what we remember … that makes us learned.
  It is not what we profess, but what we practice … that makes us Masons! 
   
• It is organized as a fellowship of men, a system of morals, a philosophy taught by degrees through the use of symbol, story, legend, pictures, and drama. It has served as a center of union among differing backgrounds, cultures, and countries. It serves as the means of conciliating true friendship among persons, who, because of differences, must have otherwise remained at a perpetual distance. - Harry Truman 
   
• Love of country is the Mason's deed; world citizenship is his thought. 
   
• Masonic ideas are the precious jewels of Speculative Masons; the should be kept bright and sparkling for all the brethren to see and to admire. As such, they should be the special care of Masonic leaders particularly those who teach and interpret the philosophy of Freemasonry. 
   
• Masonic labor is purely a labor of love. He who seeks to draw Masonic wages in gold and silver will be disappointed. The wages of a Mason are in the dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason. -Benjamin Franklin 
   
• Masonry, according to the general acceptation of the term, is an art founded on the principles of geometry, and devoted to the service and convenience of mankind. But Freemasonry, embracing a wider range and having a nobler object in view, namely, the cultivation and improvement of the human mind, may with more propriety be called a science, inasmuch as, availing itself of the terms of the former, it inculcates the principles of the purest morality, though its lessons are for the most part veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. 
   
• Masonry aims at the promotion of morality and higher living by the cultivation of the social side of man, the rousing in him of the instincts of charity and love of his kind. It rests surely on the foundation of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. - William Howard Taft 
   
• Masonry is a sacramental system, possessing, like all sacraments, an outward and visible side consisting of its ceremonial, its doctrine and its symbols, which we can see and hear, and an inward, intellectual and spiritual side, which is concealed behind the ceremonial, the doctrine and the symbols, and which is available only to the Mason who has learned to use his spiritual imagination and who can appreciate the reality that lies behind the veil of outward symbol. 
   
• Masonry is an art, useful and extensive, which comprehends within its circle every branch of useful knowledge and learning, and stamps an indellible mark of preeminence on its genuine professors, which neither chance, power, nor fortune can bestow. 
   
• Masonry is one of the most sublime and perfect institutions that ever was formed for the advancement of happiness and general good of mankind; creating, in all its varieties, universal benevolence and brotherly love. It holds out allurements so captivating as to inspire the Brotherhood with emulation to deeds of glory, such as must command, throughout the world, veneration and applause, and such as must entitle those who perform them to dignity and respect. It teaches us those useful, wise and instructive doctrines upon which alone true happiness is founded; and at the same time affords those easy paths by which we attain the rewards of virtue; it teaches us the duties which we owe to our neighbor, never to injure him in any one situation, but to conduct ourselves with justice and impartiality; it bids us not to divulge the mystery to the public, and it orders us to be true to our trust, and above all meanness and dissimulation, and in all our vocations to perform religiously that which we ought to do. - Duke of Sussex] 
   
• Masonry is too great an institution to have been made in a day, much less by a few men, but was a slow evolution through long time, unfolding its beauty as it grew. Indeed, it was like one of its own cathedrals which one generation of builders wrought and vanished, and another followed, until, amidst vicissitudes of time and change, of decline and revival, the order itself became a temple of Freedom and Fraternity. 
   
• Masonry superadds to our other obligations the strongest ties of connection between it and the cultivation of virtue, and furnishes the most powerful incentives to goodness. 
   
• Masonry was not made to divide men, but to unite them, leaving each man free to think his own thoughts and fashion his own system of ultimate truth. All its emphasis rests upon two extremely simple and profound principles, love of God and love of man. 
   
• Many writers and thinkers have tried to define Freemasonry but it really defeats definition. It is too complex, too profound in conception, to easily expressed in words. Perhaps the simplest and best definition of all is the phrase 'the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God;' Our Masonic forefathers had an understanding of human needs and human aspirations. They may never have dreamed of the mindless computer which governs our lives, or the fission of matter which threatens our lives, but they understood human nature and what motivates the spirit of man. Thus from a simple process of using stone and mortar for building they progressed to the most important of life's functions, the building of character. 
   
• More than an institution, more than a tradition, more than a society, Masonry is one of the forms of Divine life upon earth. - Joseph Fort Newton 
   
• Not all Masons are obligated on the Christian Bible. Masonry is universal and men of every creed are eligible for membership so long as they accept the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Therefore, the candidate should be obligated on the Book of the Sacred Law which he accepts as such since his obligation is a solemn and binding one. 
   
• Nowhere does one become more convinced of the strong hold which Freemasonry takes upon the minds and lives of those aging workers in the Craft who have attained its highest honors and of their firm belief in the power of its teachings to purify the soul of men and raise them to a new dignity and to greater heights of spirituality and practical morality. 
   
• One thing and only one thing a Masonic Lodge can give its members which they can get nowhere else in the world. That one thing is Masonry. 
   
• So far as I am acquainted with the principles and doctrines of Freemasonry, I conceive it to be founded in benevolence and to be exercised only for the good of mankind. - George Washington 
   
• That one things we have to teach, that one thing we Masons have as the key to our secret, the end-all and the be-all of Freemasonry is, you are my brother and I am yours. 
   
• The aims of Freemasonry are not limited to one form of operation, or one mode of benevolence, its object is at once moral and social. It proposes both to cultivate the mind and enlarge and purify the heart. 
   
• The artisan may give a man a compass and square, but he cannot make him skillful in the use of them. A square and compass perfect squares and circles line, Model of Human kinship's best, the Saint doth shine. 
   
• The Brotherhood of Man begins with the Manhood of the Brother. 
   
• The definitions of Freemasonry have been numerous, and they all unite in declaring it to be “a system of morality, by the practice of which its members may advance their spiritual interest, and mount by the theological ladder from the Lodge on earth to the Lodge in Heaven.” 
   
• The importance of improvement, setting an example, and shouldering responsibility for the future are our Masonic goals. And where will it all end? In brotherhood. What we build today will endure. That is our hope and our faith. -Stanley F. Maxwell 
   
• The Masonic Fraternity is one of the most helpful mediating and conserving organizations among men, and I have never wavered from that childhood impression, but it has stood steadfastly with me through the busy, vast hurrying years. 
   
• The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man. 
   
• The precepts of the Gospel were universally the obligations of Masonry. 
   
• The prosperity of Masonry as a means of strengthening our religion and propagating true brotherly love, is one of the dearest wishes of my heart, which, I trust, will be gratified by the help of the Grand Architect of the Universe. 
   
• The real secrets of Masonry are never told, not even from mouth to ear. For the real secret of Masonry is spoken to your heart and from it to the heart of your brother. Never the language made for tongue may speak it, it is uttered only in the eye in those manifestations of that love which a man has for his friend, which passeth all other loves. 
   
• The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put his other foot somewhat higher. 
   
• The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered; it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone. 
   
• The secrecy of Masonry is an honorable secrecy; any good man may ask for her secrets; those who are worthy will receive them. To give them to those who do not seek, or who are not worthy, would but impoverish the Fraternity and enrich not those who received them. 
   
• The Society or Fraternity of Freemasons is more in the nature of a system of Philosophy or of moral and social virtues taught by symbols, allegories, and lectures based upon fundamental truths, the observance of which tends to promote stability of character, conservatism, morality and good citizenship. 
   
• The study of Freemasonry is the study of man as a candidate for a blessed eternity. It furnishes examples of holy living, and displays the conduct which is pleasing and acceptable to God. The doctrines and examples which distinguish the Order are obvious, and suited to every capacity. It is impossible for the most fastidious Mason to misunderstand, however he might slight or neglect them. It is impossible for the most superficial brother to say that he is unable to comprehend the plain precepts and the unanswerable arguments which are furnished by Freemasonry. 
   
• The true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere. 
   
• The true Mason does not hold or teach the attitude that, I am a Master Mason now and thus I no longer need to be concerned with using the working tools because they were given in the earlier degrees. 
   
• The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out. 
   
• The true Mason never hesitates to use the working tools to correct personal flaws. 
   
• The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection. 
   
• The true Mason is the Tiler of the Temple of the Heart. 
   
• The true Mason ever strives to cultivate Masonry in his/her life to the fullest degree possible. 
   
• The true Mason's level of discernment increases with every use of the working tools, because the true Mason is ever working on him/her self. 
   
• The underlying principle of Masonry is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this war we are engaging in upholding these principles and our enemies are attacking them. - William Howard Taft
  There are great truths at the foundation of Freemasonry, truths which it is its mission to teach and which is constituting the very essence of, that sublime system which gives the venerable institution its peculiar identity as a science of morality, and it behooves every disciple diligently to ponder and inwardly digest. - Albert Pike
   
• There are no strangers in Freemasonry, only friends you've yet to meet. 
   
• There is a certain grave beauty in the practice of Masonic etiquette. The Masonic life as it is lived out in our assemblies is a conscious work of art, with each and every part coordinated to every other, and instinct with the feeling of the whole; if a man enters into that system without preparation or forethought, and trusting only his instincts, his manner will strike an awkward note, like a discord jangling across a strain of music; but if he has trained himself in his part and caught the spirit of the whole, the genius of Freemasonry will shine through his actions, will express itself through ritual, symbol, law, philosophy, fellowship and daily deed. To have one's self thus become a part of a great and living whole is a kind of satisfying pleasure nothing else can give, a participation in the very life of beauty, appreciated as much by the beholders as by the actor. This ability to confer pleasure upon one's fellows when gathered in communication or in ceremony is not the least of etiquette's rewards.
   
• There is no doubt in my mind that Masonry is the cornerstone of America. -Dave Thomas
   
• There is no institution more moral than the Masonic Lodge, or a stronger brotherhood anywhere. 
   
• Thus this process is everything for the true Mason, because each removal of a character or personality flaw gives greater discernment to practice Masonry. 
   
• We are committed to excellence in our lives and we are not willing to compromise ourselves for the sake of popularity. One time, the great German mathematician, Karl Gustav Jacobi, was asked why he decided to spend his life at work in such an obscure field. He replied, 'For the honor of the human spirit.' That is the reason why we, as Masons, give our lives affirming our beliefs in moral conduct, brotherhood and compassion. We do it for the honor of the human spirit. - Stanley F. Maxwell
   
• We can only know the fullest joys of Masonry when we truly walk the paths of service and of hard work in the quarries. - George E. Burow
   
• 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. 
   
• What is the purpose for which Masonry exists? Its ultimate purpose is the perfection of humanity. Mankind it self is still in a period of youth. We are only now beginning to acquire a consciousness of the social aim of civilization, which is man's perfection. Such perfection can never end with physical perfection, which is only the means to the end or spiritual perfection. 
   
• What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike

Taken from Lake Harriet Lodge Site.