Plotinus

Quotes

• “Pleasure and distress, fear and courage, desire and aversion, where have these affections and experiences their seat? Clearly, either in the Soul alone, or in the Soul as employing the body, or in some third entity deriving from both. And for this third entity, again, there are two possible modes: it might be either a blend or a distinct form due to the blending.”
• “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.”
• “All teems with symbol; the wise man is the man who in any one thing can read another.”
• “Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer. ... Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow or beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue.”
• “Hence, as Narcissus, by catching at the shadow, plunged himself in the stream and disappeared, so he who is captivated by beautiful bodies, and does not depart from their embrace, is precipitated, not with his body, but with his soul, into a darkness profound and repugnant to intellect (the higher soul), through which, remaining blind both here and in Hades, he associates with shadows.”

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Key facts

Philosopher.region

Western philosophy

Philosopher.era

Ancient philosophy

Philosopher.image

Plotinos.jpg

Philosopher.caption

Head in white marble. The identification as Plotinus is plausible but not proven.

Philosopher.name

Plotinus

Philosopher.birth_place

Asyut or Lycopolis, Egypt, Roman Empire

Philosopher.death_date

CE

Philosopher.death_place

Campania, Roman Empire

Philosopher.notable_works

The Enneads

Philosopher.school_tradition

Neoplatonism

Philosopher.main_interests

Platonism, metaphysics, mysticism

Philosopher.notable_ideas

Emanation of all things from the OneThree main hypostases: the One, Intellect, and SoulHenosis

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Wikidata facts

Image

Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Roma, 1969) - BEIC 6353762.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0