Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air, they recoil, and bruise itself. It is destruction and ruin. It is the volcano, the earthquake, the cyclone; — not growth and progress. It is Polyphemus blinded, striking at random, and falling headlong among the sharp rocks by the impetus of his own blows.

Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1 - Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)