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.
— William Howard Taft
The most risky William Howard Taft quotes that will activate your inner potential
The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection.
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 true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere.
Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.
Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.
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.
We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.
The precepts of the Gospel were universally the obligations of Masonry.
The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.
The true Mason never hesitates to use the working tools to correct personal flaws.
Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.
We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.
The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
The City that knows how.
Repeat mantra: Donuts are not vitamins, donuts are not.
We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.
There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach - it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.
I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.
The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.
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 true Mason ever strives to cultivate Masonry in his/her life to the fullest degree possible.
The man with the average mentality, but with control, with a definite goal, and a clear conception of how it can be gained, and above all, with the power of application and labor, wins in the end.
As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.
Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the powers and duties of the office.
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.
I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.
My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.
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.
Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.
We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.
We passed the Children's Bureau bill calculated to prevent children from being employed too early in factories.
I think I might as well give up being a candidate.
There are so many people in the country who don't like me.
Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority.
They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.
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.
Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.
The judiciary has fallen to a very low state in this country.
I think your part of the country has suffered especially. The federal judges of the South are a disgrace to any country, and I'll be damned if I put any man on the bench of whose character and ability there is the least doubt.
I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in every way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, in the Philippines, and in South America is known to everyone who has given the matter attention.
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.
I do not think that there is any doubt about where I stand in respect to boycotts. If there is, I will just state what I think about them. They are illegal and ought to be suppressed. I would never countenance that which recognizes their legality.
The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out.
Golf in the interest of good health and good manners.
It promotes self-restraint and affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman.
I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party.
The fact of the matter is, the longer I am President the less of a party man I seem to become.
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.
I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man.
I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.
Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.
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.
A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad.
If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.