Basil the Great Quotes on Mind
Basil of Caesarea, called the Great, was a fourth-century Cappadocian theologian, bishop, and the chief organizer of Eastern Christian monasticism. This page collects quotes attributed to Basil the Great on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“We must try to keep the mind in tranquility. For just as the eye which constantly shifts its gaze, now turning to the right or to the left, now incessantly peering up and down, cannot see distinctly what lies before it, but the sight must be fixed firmly on the object in view if one would make his vision of it clear, so too man's mind when distracted by his countless worldly cares cannot focus itself distinctly on the truth.”
vol. 1, p. 9 -
“When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God. vol. 1, p. 15”
νοῦς μὲν γὰρ μὴ σκεδαννύμενος ἐπὶ τὰ ἔξω μηδὲ ὑπὸ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἐπὶ τὸν κόσμον διαχεόμενος ἐπάνεισι μὲν πρὸς ἑαυτόν, δἰ ἑαυτοῦ δὲ πρὸς τὴν περὶ Θεοῦ ἔννοιαν ἀναβαίνει . -
“I consider it absurd that we should permit our senses to sate themselves without hindrance with their own material food, but that we should exclude the mind alone from its own particular activity.”
Letters | p. 91 -
“Let one hour, the same regularly each day, be set aside for food, so that out of the twenty-four hours of day and night, barely shall this one be expended on the body, the ascetic devoting the remainder to the activities of the mind.”
Letters | vol. 1, p. 23