Plotinus Quotes on Mind
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. This page collects quotes attributed to Plotinus on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Withdraw into yourself and look.”
First Ennead, Sixth Tractate, Section 9 -
Attributed to Plotinus:
“We are not separated from the good. We are separated from ourselves.”
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Attributed to Plotinus:
“Knowledge has three degrees: opinion, science, and illumination.”
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“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.