For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them, and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have shared their cause. Here is the fountain of action and of thought.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the interconnectedness of all existence and the shared essence that underlies both things and human perception.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the profound connection between the human soul and the universe. He suggests that in moments of tranquility, we become aware of our unity with all forms of existence—things, light, time, and even humanity itself. This awareness reveals that our perceptions of the world are mere appearances, masking the fundamental cause that gives life to everything. Emerson proposes that the source of our thoughts and actions is intertwined with the essence of the universe.
In practice
In a lecture on existentialism, you might quote Emerson to illustrate the shared essence of all beings.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Let the world move along as it pleased. If it had any business with him, it would be sure to tell him.
I would only believe in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!
Free will without fate is no more conceivable than spirit without matter, good without evil.
Don't believe the hype; don't believe what it tells you on your driver's license. You are an extension of the power that created this whole universe.
We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.
If you say, Well, OK, I don't believe in God. There's no evidence of God, then you're missing the stars in the sky and you're missing the sunrises and sunsets and you're missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design.
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