Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;--and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.

Give up all self, all egotisms get out of anger, lust, give all to God. "I am not, but Thou art; the old man is all gone, only Thou remainest." "I am Thou." Blame none; if evil comes, know the Lord is playing with you and be exceeding glad.

There is a reason they call God a presence - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence.

Because God is with you all the time, no place is any closer to God than the place where you are right now.

The divine is in all things.

The evenings grew longer; kitchen windows stayed open after dinner and peepers could be heard in the marsh. Isabelle, stepping out to sweep her porch steps, felt absolutely certain that some wonderful change was arriving in her life. The strength of this belief was puzzling; what she was feeling, she decided, was really the presence of God.

Recognize the possibility of the divine in any given moment.

Let me not fuss and fret at my incompetence but be still and know that Thou art God.

There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence.

This I think I have learned: where there is love, the form does not matter, and the gods are pleased. This I have observed: what occurs in nature, comes by the hand of nature, and if the gods did not approve, it would not be there ~ Moondance k'Treva (Magic's Pawn)

I haven't a single friend; I must live alone. But well I know that God is nearer to me than to the others of my art; I associate with Him without fear, I have always recognized and understood Him, and I have no fear for my music,-it can meet no evil fate. Those who understand it must become free from all the miseries that the others drag with them.

Such words as 'God' and 'Death' and 'Suffering' and 'Eternity' are best forgotten. We have to become as simple and as wordless as the growing corn or the falling rain. We must just be.

The only way to be really happy in such a world as this, is to be ever casting all our cares on God.

No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I and nature, and the father in the garden.

There is religion in everything around us, - a calm and holy religion in the unbreathing things of Nature, which man would do well to imitate.

Take God from nature, nothing great is left.

I have found, after a good deal of consideration, that the best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for Him here.

It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion.

All Profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence... Silence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the invisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world. Silence is at once the most harmless and the most awful thing in all nature. It speaks of the Reserved Forces of Fate. Silence is the only Voice of our God.

And rely on Him with 100 percent of your faith for 100 percent of your life throughout 100 percent of your tomorrows. He will give you a peace no thief can ever steal.

Heaven is in everything: follow the light, hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is. Do this and your understanding will be like not understanding and your wisdom will be like not being wise. By not being wise you will become wise later.

If you pay sufficient attention, everything in life is magnificent, everything is a doorway to the Divine.

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.

Earth's crammed with Heaven.