History
Freemasonry began in Belgium whilst the region was ruled by Austria, and later came under influence from Freemasonry in France (following the area's annexation) and the Netherlands (in the period between 1815 and 1830). When the state of Belgium was formed in 1830, Freemasonry there expanded greatly, but faced dramatic changes and challenges over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Read more about this topic: Freemasonry In Belgium
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“There is no history of how bad became better.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)