“Behind a veil, unseen yet present,
I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.”

—  Jean Racine , Britannicus

Derrière un voile, invisible et présente,
J'étais de ce grand corps l'âme toute-puissante.
Agrippine, Britannicus, (1669), act I, scene I.

Original

Derrière un voile, invisible et présente, J'étais de ce grand corps l'âme toute-puissante.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 17, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body." by Jean Racine?
Jean Racine photo
Jean Racine 15
French dramatist 1639–1699

Related quotes

Socrates photo

“Suppose that there are two sorts of existences, one seen, and the other unseen. …The seen is the changing, and the unseen is the unchanging. …And further, is not one part of us body, and the rest of us soul? …Then the soul is more like to the unseen, and the body to the seen? …the soul is then dragged by the body into the region of the changeable, and wanders and is confused; the world spins round her, and she is like a drunkard when under their influence?”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Plato, Phaedo

“Beauty, which the mirror of creation was beautifying,
with a hundred thousand suns each atom caressing,
despite its great glory was behind the unseen's veil...
it did not know itself until humanity was blossoming.”

Abdul-Qādir Bedil (1644–1720) Persian writer,poet

Bedil: Selected Poems, p. 59
Rubaʿiyat (Quatrains), Stanza

Muhammad Iqbál photo

“The new world is as yet
behind the veil of destiny
In my eyes, however
its dawn has been unveiled”

Muhammad Iqbál (1877–1938) Urdu poet and leader of the Pakistan Movement
Diadochos of Photiki photo

“The eye of the soul cannot be led astray when its veil, by which I mean the body, is refined to near-transparency through self-control.”

Diadochos of Photiki (400–486) Byzantine saint

§ 71
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination (480 AD)

James Allen photo

“The human will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless soul,
Can hew the way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.”

James Allen (1864–1912) British philosophical writer

As A Man Thinketh (1902), Effect of Thought on Circumstances

Maimónides photo

“In so far as the soul is a force residing in the body; it has therefore been said that the properties of the soul depend of the condition of the body.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach photo

“Chance is necessity hidden behind a veil.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Der Zufall ist die in Schleier gehüllte Notwendigkeit.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 20.

Henrik Ibsen photo

“Erring soul of man — if thou wast indeed forced to err, it shall surely be accounted to thee for good on that great day when the Mighty One shall descend in the clouds to judge the living dead and the dead who are yet alive!”

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

Makrina, in Emperor and Galilean (1873), Final lines.

Julien Offray de La Mettrie photo

“The ancients, persuaded that there is no body without a moving force, regarded the substance of bodies as composed of two primitive attributes.”

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751) French physician and philosopher

It was held that, through one of these attributes, this substance has the capacity for moving and, through the other, the capacity for being moved.
Source: The Natural History of the Soul (1745), Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter

Swami Vivekananda photo

“The Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe—the body—is the soul.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Related topics