Great Freemasons: Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959)

"Creation is a drug I can't do without." Cecil B. DeMille

(Prince of Orange Lodge No. 16, New York City)

Great Freemasons: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

"Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free. Such things did not need as much emphasis a generation ago, but when the clock of civilization can be turned back by burning libraries, by exiling scientists, artists, musicians, writers and teachers; by disbursing universities, and by censoring news and literature and art; an added burden, an added burden is placed on those countries where the courts of free thought and free learning still burn bright. If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation."

(Holland Lodge No. 8, New York)

Great Freemasons: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

"A Mason’s ways are
A type of existence,
And his persistence
... Is as the days are
Of men of the world.
The future hides in it
Good hap or sorrow,
We pass through it-
Naught there abides in it
Daunting us- onward.
And silent, before us,
Veiled the dark portal,
Goal of all mortal;
Stars silent rest over us,
Graves under us silent.
But heard are the voices-
Voices of the sages
Of the world and the ages-
Choose well, your choice is
Brief, but yet endless.
Here eyes do regard you
In eternity’s stillness,
Here is all fullness,
Ye brave, to reward you,
Work and despair not."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(Lodge Amelie, Weimar)

Praxeology - Episode 10 - The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility

Great Freemasons: W.C. Fields (1880 - 1946)

"I never voted for anybody. I always voted against." W.C. Fields

(E. Coppee Mitchell Lodge No. 605, Philadelphia)

Great Freemasons: Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (1771 - 1832)

"One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation." Sir Walter Scott

Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include 'Ivanhoe,' 'Rob Roy,' 'The Lady of The Lake,' 'Waverley,' 'The Heart of Midlothian' and 'The Bride of Lammermoor.'

(Canongate Kilwinning from Leith/St. David)

Great Freemasons: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963)

"I believe in God who made of one blood all races that dwell on earth. I believe that all men, black and brown and white, are brothers, varying through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and in the possibility of infinite development. " W. E. B. Du Bois

"William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an intellectual leader in the United States as a sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Biographer David Levering Lewis wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism—scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity." ~wikipedia


(Bro W. E. B. DuBois was made a Prince Hall Freemason December 12, 1910 when initiated into Widow Son Lodge #1, MWPHGL of CT at New Haven. According to information gathered from "Great Black Men of Masonry: Qualitative Black Achievers who were Freemasons” by Joseph Mason Andrew Cox; 1987 ed., Dr W. E. B. DuBois was a Thirty-Third Degree Mason, Ancient & Accepted Scottish of Freemasonry, PHA, Southern Jurisdiction, USA.)

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