"But souls that of his own good life partake,
He loves as his own self; dear as his eye
They are to Him; He'll never them forsake:
When that shall die, then God himself shall die:
They live, they live in blest eternity."
-Henry More
"Why do we gotta hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe it's all men an' all women
we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's
a part of.'"
-Jim Casey, The Grapes of Wrath
"What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not,
as we know him, represnt himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is,
would he let it apear through his action, would he 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."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There was the hills, an' there was me, an' we wasn't separate no more. We was
one thing. An' that one thing was holy. I got to thinkin' how we was holy when we was one thing, an' mankin' was
holy when it was one thing."
-Jim Casey, The Grapes of Wrath
"Went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, and he found he didn't have
no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little peice of a great big soul. Saya a wilderness ain't no good
'cause his little peice of soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole."
-Tom Joad, The Grapes of Wrath
"Those who are capable of humility, of justice, of love, of aspiration, stand already
on a platform that commands the sciences and arts, speech and poetry, action and grace."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The stout woman smiled. 'No need to thank. Ever'body's in the same wagon.
S'pose we was down. You'd give us a han'.
'Yes,' Ma said, 'we would.'
'Or anybody.'
'Or anybody. Use' ta be the fambly was fust. It ain't so now. It's
anybody. Worse off we get, the more we got to do.'"
-Ma Joad, The Grapes of Wrath
Each of these quotations, found in The Grapes of Wrath, or borrowed from another
writer, explain the importance of transcending yourself to be part of the oversoul. The Joads realize that taking care
of all their people instead of just their individual family, is the moral thing to do. Jim Casey explains to Tom Joad,
that a person's single soul will do no good in the world, unless it is united with everyone elses souls. Emerson speaks
of when the oversoul takes actions, is heard, or moves, it is genius, and creates a sense of love and virtue. More explains
that if a person is loyal and is together with the oversoul, than God will be with them forever. When these righteous
people die, God will still be with them and allow them to rest peacefully for all eternity.
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