The Lost Key Quotes

“So the recognition of the obvious fact that many of the Rites and Symbols of Masonry were devised from the standpoint of a believer in Rebirth or the evolution of the soul, does not involve any necessity on the part of the Masonic student to believe the same or to make it a part of his religious dogma any more than the Egyptologist, when he deciphers a prayer to Ra, the Sun god, carved upon some Egyptian tomb thousands of years before the time of Christ, is thereby compelled to believe in the existence and power of Ra and begin to worship him with the same prayer.”
― Prentiss Tucker, The Lost Key: An Explanation and Application of the Masonic Symbols

“We are trying to find out the meanings which lay in the minds of the originators of the Masonic Symbolisms as the reasons why they instituted these symbolic lessons. Let us remember this point very carefully and also the further fact that all these symbols date back to a period far anterior to the time of Christ.”
― Prentiss Tucker, The Lost Key: An Explanation and Application of the Masonic Symbols