Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum, and here they will break out into their native music and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; and then the mad fit returns, and they mope and wallow like dogs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet

Essay (1841), “History,” Essays: First Series, No. 1
    (Source)

This essay was a combination of three separate lectures on "English Literature" (1835-1836), "The Philosophy of History" (1836-1837), and "Human Life" (1837-1838).

Note this passage is missing from the University of Michigan online collection.