Hölderlin (and Epictetus) Quotes

Just some quotes from recent reading that I found interesting.

The first two quotes are from Höderlin's epistolary novel, Hyperion, in a letter that waxes eloquent about the nature of philosophy and the classical Athenian spirit, as the eponymous writer overlooks the ruins of Athens.

"The man," I resumed, "who has not at least once in his life felt full, pure beauty in himself, when the powers of his being merged like the colors in the rainbow, who has never felt the profound harmony that arises among all things only in hours of exaltation - that man will not even be a philosophical skeptic, his mind is not even capable of tearing down, let alone of building up. For, believe me, the sceptic finds contradiction and imperfection in all that is thought, because he knows the harmony of perfect beauty, which is never thought. The dry bread that human reason well-meaningly offers him, he disdains only because he is secretly feasting at the table of the gods." - Hölderlin, Hyperion

(As a side note, it's probably just because of the odd mix of stuff I've been reading as of late, but I certainly seem to hear similarities between this and Henry of Ghent's view of divine illumination, coming from Augustine. It's all rather Platonic, in any case.)

Reason without beauty of spirit and heart is like an overseer whom the master of the house has set over the servants; he knows as little as they do what will come of all their endless toil, he only shouts: 'Get busy,' and is almost sorry to find the work being accomplished, for in the end he would have nothing more to oversee, and his part would be played. Mere intellect produces no philosophy, for philosophy is more than the limited perception of what is. Mere reason produces no philosophy, for philosophy is more than the blind demand for ever greater progress in the combination and differentiation of some particular material. - Hölderlin, Hyperion

And a pithy quote from Epictetus, on how to study philosophy:

... so never look for your work in one place and your progress in another. - Epictetus, Discourses I.IV.17