Date: 250

"When the Intellect is in upward orientation that [lower part of it] which contains [or, corresponds to] the life of the Soul, is, so to speak, flung down again and becomes like the reflection resting on the smooth and shining surface of a mirror; in this illustration, when the mirror is in place...

— Plotinus (c. 205-270)

Date: 250

"When, on the contrary, the mirror within is shattered through some disturbance of the harmony of the body, Reason and the Intellectual-Principle act unpictured: Intellection is unattended by imagination."

— Plotinus (c. 205-270)

Date: 386

Reason or Ratio is a visitor who may be encountered when seeking the "real self" and one's "best good," but whether Reason is ourself or another, within us or without is not known.

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 386

Reason lets you "see God with your mind as the sun is seen with the eye."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 386

"The mind has as it were, eyes of its own, analogous to the soul's senses."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 386

"I, Reason, am in minds as the power of looking is in the eyes."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 386

"The eye of the mind is healthy when it is pure from every taint of the body, that is, when it is remote and purged from desire of mortal things."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 386

"It is impossible to show God to a mind vitiated and sick."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 387-8 or 391-5

"Our next subject is whether reason judges the inner sense."

— St. Augustine (354-430)

Date: 387-8 or 391-5

"I think so because I know that the inner sense is a kind of controller or judge of the bodily sense."

— St. Augustine (354-430)