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Quotes from Five Questions Concerning the Mind — Marsilio Ficino

1433–1499 Italy

← All quotes by Marsilio Ficino

4 quotes

The intellect is prompted by nature to comprehend the whole breadth of being. ... Under the concept of truth it knows all, and under the concept of the good it desires all.

Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495)

The desire of the will is not satisfied by any good, as long as we believe that there is yet another beyond it. Therefore, the will is satisfied only by that one good beyond which there is no further good. What can this good be except the boundless God?

Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495)

The inquiry of the intellect never ceases until it finds that cause of which nothing is the cause but which is itself the cause of causes. This cause is none other than the boundless God. Similarly, the desire of the will is not satisfied by any good, as long as we believe that there is yet another beyond it. Therefore, the will is satisfied only by that one good beyond which there is no further good. What can this good be except the boundless God?

Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495)

The rational soul in a certain manner possesses the excellence of infinity and eternity. If this were not the case, it would never characteristically incline toward the infinite. Undoubtedly this is the reason that there are none among men who live contentedly on earth and are satisfied with merely temporal possessions.

Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Marsilio Ficino (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.