Plotinus Quotes
Plotinus was a 3rd-century philosopher of late antiquity, born in Roman Egypt and active in Rome, where he founded the philosophical school whose teaching is preserved in the Enneads. Edited by his student Porphyry, the Enneads develop a Platonic metaphysics in which all reality emanates from a single ineffable source called the One, through Intellect and Soul, into the perceptible cosmos. The quotes below are attributed to Plotinus, organized by topic.
Browse Plotinus by topic
Plotinus on God
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“If you do not become equal to God, you cannot understand God: for the like is known by the like.”
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“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.”
First Tractate : The Animate and the Man, §1 -
“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.”
First Tractate : The Animate and the Man, §3 -
“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 .”
First Ennead, Book VI, as translated by Thomas Taylor , The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: A Dissertation (1891) pp. 43-44.
Plotinus on Knowledge
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“He who has but the slightest experience of beauty knows what beauty is.”
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“Knowledge has three degrees: opinion, science, and illumination.”
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“First Tractate : The Animate and the Man, §1”
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. -
“First Tractate : The Animate and the Man, §3”
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 wh -
“All teems with symbol ; the wise man is the man who in any one thing can read another.”
II.3.7 -
“First Ennead, Sixth Tractate, Section 9”
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 yo -
“First Ennead, Book VI, as translated by Thomas Taylor , The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: A Dissertation (1891) pp. 43-44.”
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 . -
“First Ennead, Book VIII, as translated by Thomas Taylor, The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: A Dissertation (1891) pp. 38-39.”
When the soul has descended into generation (from its first divine condition) she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in which, is nothing more than to fall into a dark mire. ...The soul dies as much as it is possible for the soul to die: and the death to her is, while baptized or immersed in the present bo
Plotinus on Mind
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“Withdraw into yourself and look.”
First Ennead, Sixth Tractate, Section 9
Plotinus on Nature
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“It is in virtue of unity that beings are beings.”
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“All things, in proportion to their possession of being, possess unity.”
Plotinus on Virtue
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“We are not separated from the good. We are separated from ourselves.”
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“The wise man recognises the idea of the good in all that he sees.”