Plotinus

Excerpt from Plotinus

Now of Neoplatonism Plotinus was the coryphaeus, if not the founder. What Plato was to Socrates, Plotinus was to his master, Ammonius Saccas. Neither Socrates nor Ammonius committed anything to writing; Plato and Plotinus were the great expounders of the tenets of their respective schools and, as far as we can judge, far transcended their teachers in brilliancy of genius. Therefore, to the student of Neoplatonism, the works of Plotinus are the most indispensable document, and the basis of the whole system. Just as no Platonic philosopher transcended'the genius of Plato, so no N eoplatonic philosopher sur passed the genius of Plotinus.