Quotes for Friday from Manly P. Hall's The Secret Destiny of America

I would be reviewing this book over the weekend. Manly P. Hall writes about the influence of Secret Societies on the rise of America and the destiny that America has in the wider scheme of things. Himself a Mason, Manly writes with the conviction of one who knows and not just knows but deeply knows. He minces no words.

Competition is natural to the ignorant; and cooperation is natural to the wise. Obeying the pattern established by the gods, the divine kings bound themselves into the common league to obey its laws, preserve peace, and punish any whose ambition might impel them to tyranny or conquest. (Page 44)

Wise men are naturally endowed with the qualities of rulership, but they have had little if any voice in the rulership of the world; their voices have been heard only after the men themselves were dead. Plato lives thus today, and his words have a greater vitality in this century than they did in his time in ancient Athens. (Page 50)

We cannot hope to build a nobility of man upon the sterility of a narrow, competitive, materialistic educational policy. The ignorance of man has been his undoing. Only wisdom can restore him to his divine estate. (Page 51)

"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible." (Page 82)

[G]ood things must be brought about slowly and opportunely if they are to survive public inertia and opposition. (Page 117)

No human being who is moved to action through wrong motivations, or misuses the privileges of his times, can be regarded as educated, regardless of the amount of formal schooling he has received. (Page 138)

The Greek law giver Solon declared that in the ideal State laws are few and simple, because they have been derived from certainties. In the corrupt State, laws are many and confused, because they have been derived from uncertainties. These corrupt laws are like the web of a spider which catches small insects but permits the stronger creatures to break through and escape. (Page 138)

The half-truth is the most dangerous form of lie, because it can be defended in part by incontestable logic. Wherever the body of learning is broken up, the fragments become partial truths. We live in a day of partial truths; and until we remedy the condition we must suffer the inevitable consequences of division. (Page 139)

According to the Ancients, religion, philosophy, and science are the three parts of essential learning. Not one of these parts is capable if separated from the rest, of assuring the security of the human state. A government based upon one or even two of these parts must ultimately degenerate into a tyranny, either of men or of opinion. (Page 139)

Modern scholars have accepted, without proper reflection, a fabrication of lies fashioned to deceive and to prevent the recognition of facts detrimental, even dangerous, to the ulterior motives of powerful  interests. (Page 186)

For eighteen years that he filled this office (as Grand Inquisitor), Torquemada averaged ten thousand executions annually. (Page 230)

The theory of freedom could be preserved by Secret Societies, but the practice of freedom required the cooperation of an enlightened people dedicated to a lofty ethical standard. (Page 240)

Wherever religious inducements are personal and selfish or the devotee is encouraged to advance his own growth without consideration for others, there is something wrong with the policy of the sect. (Page 241)

Education can be conferred by schools and universities, but enlightenment must still result from internal growth. Without proper development of his superphysical resources, the individual cannot protect his physical rights and privileges. (Page 241)

Progress of society always demands that the human being as a person be in advance of the institutions which he creates. When leadership passes to the keeping of external enterprises, the person becomes a slave to his own project. (Page 241)

Personal ambitions, liberated by the new code of freedom, immediately began to dream of supremacy. A vast concept, highly competitive in principle and highly destructive in practice, perpetuated most of the instruments of the old tyranny. (Page 242)

Having overcome the despotism of entrenched classes, humanity discovered the despotism in itself. It was faced with the unhappy realization that tyrannical systems are only symbols of those tyrannical instincts which exist in all creatures until they are overcome by enlightened understanding. (Page 242)

The great tree of knowledge, which is knowledge, with its twelve branches, is for the healing of the nations. Who shall say that it has revealed the fullness of its benefits? (Page 244)

The forces opposing the essential progress of humanity are always embodiments of the three great enemies: ignorance, superstition, and fear. ... Ignorance is the state of insufficient knowledge. The concept is relative, but sufficient knowledge is that which is superior to whatever circumstances may prevail. Superstition is addiction to that which is untrue. The prevailing superstition is the acceptance of materialism, an acceptance which is indefensible and undemonstrable. Fear is man's anxiety over the consequences of his own actions, becoming the victim of the collective conduct of his own kind. (Page 245)