Why Sigma Nu?

To win in the fresh morning of our youth the loyal love of faithful friends, who will go with us unmoved into the darkening shadows of life's closing day; and so, to seek and to find, to have and to hold the friendships that will abide. To think of God as the common Father of all men, and all men as a common brotherhood, thus recognizing the continuity of the Divine and the solidarity of the human life. To build somewhere in the wide world the sheltering walls of a home, however humble and obscure, where Love shall glorify the wife, Duty enshrines the mother, and Affection ennoble the child. To keep green the sainted memory of our loved and lost, their faults forgotten, their virtues enshrined in our hearts forever. To try bravely to do unto our fellow men as would they do unto us, reckoning not their lineage nor their wealth, but esteeming their manhood above their badge of rank. To let our lives be led by the spirits of Gentleness, Justice and Mercy. And so, to be true to the Knighthood of Love. 

To exalt the fundamental virtues of the race; and, prizing every noble impulse, to realize so deeply the baseness of deceit, that no obligation will be more binding than our plighted word. To be steadfast in the performance of every trust, and, spurning the gaudy gifts of greed and power, to be content to live by our knightly vow that our honor is dearer to us than our lives; and so, to esteem the man's character first, his culture second, and his pedigree not at all, unless he be worthy of it. Emulating the chivalrous deeds of courtesy and sealing not our hearts against the touch of tenderness, to win the love and care of some incorruptible woman. And so, to be loyal to the Knighthood of Honor. 

To open wide, Life's windows to the revelations of heaven and earth. Avoiding the Phariseeism that belittles the soul and scorning the bigotry that blights the mind, to respect every altar of faith built in God's name, by every sincere worshiper to whom, if we cannot give our sympathy, we shall not deny the kindness of our manly silence; and, whatever our creed, to reverence the Christ as the Divine Compassion for struggling humanity -- a compassion that, giving the world its gospel of human service, saves men to the end that they may serve their fellowmen.

To seek in nature, the meaning of the Infinite Truth; to understand that the laws of growth are the laws of God; to believe that the melody of birds, the laughter of children, the unmeasured sacrifice of motherhood, and the ceaseless yearning of all men for a wider outlook and a nobler existence are prophetic of the perfect joy and love of another world; and, so believing, to find rest, as in the shadow of a great rock, against all the storms that beset us; catching from the silence of the starlit nights, the peace of the autumn days, the solemnity of the boundless seas, that spirit of Hope and Faith which soothes the hurt of grief, heals the wound of wrong, and calms the fever of doubt.