Attribuée à Plotinus
«Beauty is the light that plays over the symmetry of things, rather than the symmetry itself.»
Fausse attribution
Verdict
Elle ne figure pas dans l'œuvre de Plotinus
A free and widely circulated paraphrase of Enneads VI.7 [38].22, where Plotinus says that beauty is rather what shines upon the symmetry than the symmetry itself. It circulates as a literal quotation, but it is not one; the original passage should be quoted.
Ce qu'il a vraiment dit
Paroles vérifiées de Plotinus
«Let us flee then to the beloved Fatherland.»
Enéadas I 6 [1], 8 (citando la Ilíada). Griego: Wikisource; inglés: Stephen MacKenna; español: traducción propia.
«Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue […] and never cease chiselling your statue.»
Enéadas I 6 [1], 9. Griego: Wikisource; inglés: Stephen MacKenna; español: traducción propia.
«Never did eye see the sun unless it had first become sunlike, and never can the soul have vision of the First Beauty unless itself be beautiful.»
Enéadas I 6 [1], 9. Griego: Wikisource; inglés: Stephen MacKenna; español: traducción propia.