“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 grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race.

“If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about, what he cares about most is the redemption of the people he made.”

“The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it. But if you break it, a surprising result will follow. If in your working hours you make the work your end, you will presently find yourself all unawares inside the only circle in your profession that really matters. You will be one of the sound craftsmen, and other sound craftsmen will know it. This group of craftsmen will by no means coincide with the Inner Ring or the Important People or the People in the Know. It will not shape that professional policy or work up that professional influence which fights for the profession as a whole against the public: nor will it lead to those periodic scandals and crises which the Inner Ring produces. But it will do those things which that profession exists to do and will in the long run be responsible for all the respect which that profession in fact enjoys and which the speeches and advertisements cannot maintain. And if in your spare time you consort simply with the people you like, you will again find that you have come unawares to a real inside: that you are indeed snug and safe at the center of something which, seen from without, would look exactly like an Inner Ring. But the difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric: for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things that they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ring can ever have it.”

“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.”

“Failure results from bad breaks.”

“¡todos los logros, todas las riquezas obtenidas, tienen su comienzo en una idea!” 

“Never let the things you can't do, stop you from doing what you can.”

“We have been trying to solve every ill of society as though society were made up of regenerate men to whom we had an obligation to speak with Christian advice.”

“Let every youth take a leaf out of my book and make it a point to account for everything that comes into and goes out of his pocket, and like me he is sure to be a gainer in the end.”

“noncooperation with evil is just as much a moral duty as is cooperation with good.”

“One should never presume one is the sole object of a hunt,”

“We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

“The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.”

“Most people are living for today with barely a thought of eternity.”