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 More Quotes by Joseph Fort Newton More Quotes From Joseph Fort Newton Men build too many walls and not enough bridges. Joseph Fort Newton wall inspiration life We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us - how we can take it, what we do with it - and that is what really counts in the end. Joseph Fort Newton emotional may attitude Be the kind of person you would like to be with. Some people come into our lives, make footprints on our hearts and we are never the same. People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. Joseph Fort Newton wall lonely relationship To be happy is easy enough if we give ourselves, forgive others, and live with thanksgiving, No self centered person, no ungrateful soul can ever be happy, much less make anyone else happy. Life is giving, not getting. Joseph Fort Newton self happiness happy-life Every person has a train of thought on which they travel when they are alone. The dignity and nobility of their life, as well as their happiness depend upon the direction in which that train is going, the baggage it carries and the scenery through which it travels. Joseph Fort Newton train-of-thought baggage dignity Belief is truth held in the mind; faith is a fire in the heart. Joseph Fort Newton religious heart inspirational God works for man through man and seldom, if at all, in any other way. He asks for our voices to speak His truth, for our hands to do His work here below, sweet voices and clean hands to make liberty and love prevail over injustice and hate. Joseph Fort Newton hate sweet men Not what we have, but what we use, not what we see, but what we choose, these are the things that mar or bless the sum of human happiness. Joseph Fort Newton bless mars use Love is lost in immensities; it comes in simple, gentle ways. Joseph Fort Newton simplicity simple love 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. Joseph Fort Newton fashion simple men An egotist is not a man who thinks too much of himself; he is a man who thinks too little of other people. Joseph Fort Newton men people thinking A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last. Joseph Fort Newton accountability debt money The discovery of the Square was a great event to the primitive mystics of the Nile. Very early it became an emblem of truth, justice, and righteousness, and it remains to this day through unaccountable ages have passed. Joseph Fort Newton squares justice discovery Every man has a train of thought on which he rides when he is alone. Joseph Fort Newton train-of-thought train men So many of us know what we are against, but not what we are for-what we disbelieve, not what we believe. A negative life easily becomes neutral and futile. Joseph Fort Newton knows believe negative Instead of criticizing Masonry, let us than God for one alter where no man is asked to surrender his liberty of thought and become an indistinguishable atom on a mass of sectarian agglomeration. Joseph Fort Newton atoms liberty men The real question, after all, is not the quantity of life, but its quality, its depth, its purity, its fortitude, its fineness of spirit and gesture of soul. Joseph Fort Newton quality real soul 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. Joseph Fort Newton men order long It is not strange that men of note and learning, attracted by the wealth of symbolism on Masonry, as well as by its spirit of fraternity perhaps, also by its secrecy began at an early date to ask to be accepted as members of the order; hence Accepted Masons. How far back the custom of admitting such men to the Lodge goes is not clear, but hints of it are discernable in the oldest documents of the order. Joseph Fort Newton symbolism men order Whether there were organized orders of builders in the early times no one can tell, through there may have been. No matter; man mixed thought and worship with his work, and as he cut his altar stones and fitted them together he thought out a faith by which to live. Joseph Fort Newton cutting men order
