Freemasons are expected to uphold the principles of "Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth" (or in France: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity").

The duty of a Mason is to "give to the cause of Charity,” as stressed by William Preston, in his Illustrations of Masonry of 1772, when he wrote: "To relive the distressed is a duty incumbent on all men, but particularly on Freemasons, who are linked together by an indissoluble chain of sincere affection. "To soothe the unhappy, to sympathize with their misfortunes, to compassionate their miseries and to restore their troubled minds, is the great aim we have in view."

A Mason's duty is also in his loyalty, as a peaceful subject, to the civil authority found wherever he resides or works, and it is on these grounds, restrained from pursuing any means of disrupting the established rule of law, that Freemasonry is itself a reformist institution, its members abstaining from any thought of association with rebellion. This may seem at odds with the support given by many Masons over the years to democratic revolutions (including that of the United States). This is usually explained by the fact that Masons tend to view their obligations, while of utmost importance, to be in a hierarchy of priority: firstly to God, then to country, then to family and only then to Masonry. So, if one's highest religious and moral principles are violated by an obligation to one's country, only then can that obligation be broken, in favor of the higher principle.

Freemasons consider the need for vigilance in the defense of human liberty to be as great in society as it is within the Craft. It is a general source of pride within the fraternity that society's aims and values have increasingly come into line with those of Freemasonry, and they view their Order as having helped laid the foundations for many of the cultural norms and values prevalent in the western World today.

The legend at the heart of Masonic Ritual—the story of the building and reconstruction of King Solomon's Temple—is generally seen as an allegory for the creation of a new, just. and more tolerant society.