Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man’s onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that doubt and questioning are important for making progress and discovering new things. Without the ability to doubt and question, it would be impossible to compare ideas, make judgments, or improve ourselves. This ability to doubt and question is a special gift that our reason or intelligence gives us.

About Albert Pike

Albert Pike was a prominent 19th-century American figure, serving as a lawyer, poet, and Confederate Army general. He was also a high-ranking Freemason, leading the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction for over 30 years.

More about the author

More quotes from Albert Pike

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Will is the dynamic soul-force.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Doubt, the essential preliminary of all improvement and discovery, must accompany the stages of man’s onward progress. The faculty of doubting and questioning, without which those of comparison and judgment would be useless, is itself a divine prerogative of the reason.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

One man is equivalent to all Creation. One man is a World in miniature.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

The sovereignty of one’s self over one’s self is called Liberty.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

The universal medicine for the Soul is the Supreme Reason and Absolute Justice; for the mind, mathematical and practical Truth; for the body, the Quintessence, a combination of light and gold.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world, have been achieved by poor men; poor scholars, poor professional men, poor artisans and artists, poor philosophers, poets, and men of genius.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

To work with the hands or brain, according to our requirements and our capacities, to do that which lies before us to do, is more honorable than rank and title.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

A war for a great principle ennobles a nation.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

The eyes of the cheerful and of the melancholy man are fixed upon the same creation; but very different are the aspects which it bears to them.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)

Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted.

Albert Pike

Associate Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court (1864-1865)