“The corporeal element in man is a large screen and partition that prevents him from perfectly perceiving abstract ideals”

— Maimónides , book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.9
Context: The corporeal element in man is a large screen and partition that prevents him from perfectly perceiving abstract ideals; this would be the case even if the corporeal element were as pure and superior as the substance of the spheres; how much more must this be the case with our dark and opaque body. However great the exertion of our mind may be to comprehend the Divine Being or any of the ideals, we find a screen and partition between God and us.

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Maimónides 180

rabbi, physician, philosopher 1138–1204

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1910 - 1915