Emerson Oversoul Quotes

That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily, but involuntarily. Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.

The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know the truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose.

The influence of the senses has, in most men, overpowered the mind to the degree that the walls of time and space have come to look real and insurmountable; and to speak with levity of these limits is, in the world, the sign of insanity. Yet, time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul.

Foolish people ask you, when you speak what they do not wish to hear, "How do you know it is the truth, and not an error of your own?" We know the truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.

The philosophy of six thousand years has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul. In its experiments there has always remained, in the last analysis, a residuum it could not resolve. Man is a stream whose source is hidden.

O, believe, as thou livest, that every sound that is spoken over the round world, which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate on thine ear!

The faith that stands on authority is not faith. The reliance on authority measures the decline of religion, the withdrawal of the soul. The position men have given to Jesus, now for many centuries of history, is a position of authority. It characterizes themselves.

Genius is religious.

The learned and the studious of thought have no monopoly of wisdom. Their violence of direction in some degree disqualifies them to think truly. We owe many valuable observations to people who are not very acute or profound, and who say the thing without effort which we want and have long been hunting in vain.

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole.

The soul is what knows—and draws us towards—truth, beauty, and goodness. Moreover, for Emerson, each person’s soul is only a part of the great, universal “over-soul.” He describes the soul as a vast ocean, with our individual souls being tiny inlets into the shore. Individuality is an illusion—really, we’re all connected, like fingers extending from one hand.

The unity of humanity can be explained in a mystical way, as Emerson did with his term “over-soul” (see below); but it can also be put into scientific terms. Science has revealed that all human beings belong to one species, with the same anatomy and brain structure. We’re all part of one family; descended, in fact, from one common ancestor. Racial and cultural differences are only secondary and surface—the unity of humanity is primary and fundamental.

the all-in-each idea as two overlapping but still discrete tendencies. “Self-Reliance” affirms the tendency toward individuation. “The Oversoul” affirms the existence of “that great nature in which we rest.” This

Sometimes when you’re writing the universe seems to respond, and it feels like you are directly in dialog with what Emerson called the “Over-Soul.

But if I renounce my will, and act for the soul, setting that up as umpire between us two, out of his young eyes looks the same soul; he reveres and loves with me.

[T]he soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend. When it breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love.

[T]he heart which abandons itself to the Supreme Mind finds itself related to all its works, and will travel a royal road to particular knowledges and powers.

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Great is the soul, and plain. It is no flatterer, it is no follower; it never appeals from itself. It believes in itself.