Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinuswas a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term Neoplatonism and applied it to him and his philosophy which was influential in Late Antiquity. Much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries...
NationalityEgyptian
ProfessionPhilosopher
CountryEgypt
All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
In this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view; the vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and act of vision have become identical.
There is one and the same soul in many bodies.
One principle must make the universe a single complex living creature, one from all.
Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues....
Become vision itself.
Life is the flight of the alone to the alone.
Fear must be entirely banished. The purified soul will fear nothing.
It is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it.
Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.
Withdraw into yourself and look.
We may treat of the Soul as in the body - whether it be set above it or actually within it - since the association of the two constitutes the one thing called the living organism, the Animate.Now from this relation, from the Soul using the body as an instrument, it does not follow that the Soul must share the body's experiences: a man does not himself feel all the experiences of the tools with which he is working.
We are not separated from spirit, we are in it.
Beauty is rather a light that plays over the symmetry of things than that symmetry itself.