Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes about Heaven

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Attitude, Greatness, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Journals, December 20, 1822.

Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

House, Heaven, World

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.48, Library of America

We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift. The current knows the way, though we do not. The ship of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Heaven, Pilots, Way

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.142, University of Georgia Press

Many might go to Heaven with half the labor they go to hell.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Heaven, Half, Might

Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thinking, Heaven, Deceived

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert J. Von Frank (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry”, p.188, Harvard University Press

The energetic action of the times develops individualism, and the religious appear isolated. I esteem this a step in the right direction. Heaven deals with us on no representative system. Souls are not saved in bundles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Religious, Heaven, Soul

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.429

No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic. Let it be in your bones. In this way, you will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Doors, Heaven, Earth

Underneath the inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a musical perfection, the Ideal journeying always with us, the heaven without rent or seam.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Journey, Perfection, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.484, Library of America

I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sea, Heaven, Speech

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1841-1843”, p.357, Harvard University Press

I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than that so many men should know the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men, Heaven, Chinese

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.215

The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether their be any who understand it or not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Angel, Men, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.104, Graphic Arts Books

Dear to us are those who love us... but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love, Heaven, Rejection

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1531, Delphi Classics

The ship of heaven guides itself and will not accept a wooden rudder.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Acceptance, Heaven, Ships

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.142, University of Georgia Press

The visible heavens and earth sympathize with Jesus.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jesus, Nature, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.8, Courier Corporation

Yet things are knowable! They are knowable, because, being from one, things correspond. There is a scale: and the correspondence of heaven to earth, of matter to mind, of the part to the whole, is our guide. As there is a science of stars, called astronomy; and science of quantities, called mathematics; a science of qualities, called chemistry; so there is a science of sciences,--I call it Dialectic,--which is the Intellect discriminating the false and the true.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stars, Knowledge, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.534, Modern Library

Heaven is large, and affords space for all modes of love and fortitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Space, Heaven, Fortitude

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “Essays: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.126, ReadHowYouWant.com

Heaven often protects valuable souls charged with great secrets, great ideas, by long shutting them up with their own thoughts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ideas, Long, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2744, Delphi Classics

In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects, what difference does it make, whether Orion is up there in heaven, or some god paints the image in the firmament of the soul?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge, Differences, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco, Joel Myerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.54, Harvard University Press

We know that madness belongs to love,--what power to paint a vile object in hues of heaven.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love, Power, Heaven

Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.423, Harvard University Press

We pray to be conventional. But the wary Heaven takes care you shall not be, if there is anything good in you. Dante was very badcompany, and was never invited to dinner.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Heaven, Care, Dinner

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.282, Penguin

Heaven always bears some proportion to earth. The god of the cannibal will be a cannibal, of the crusades a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Humility, Heaven, Bears

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume II”, p.425

God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Heaven, Awkward, Forgiving

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2397, Delphi Classics

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven depending on whether they compare it to something better and so feel disappointed and bitter or something worse and so feel relieved and grateful.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gratitude, Grateful, Heaven