Never did eye see the sun unless it had first become sun-like, and never can the soul have vision of the First Beauty unless itself be beautiful. Plotinus More Quotes by Plotinus More Quotes From Plotinus The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together. Plotinus stars together sky Knowledge has three degrees--opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition. Plotinus illumination mean knowledge Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; the sculptor cuts away here, smoothes there, makes this line lighter, this other purer, until he or she has shown a beautiful face upon the statue. Plotinus finding-yourself cutting beautiful Mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts. Plotinus midway beast mankind Each one of us is part of the soul of the universe Plotinus universe soul You can only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty that is superior to reason. Plotinus infinite wisdom faith We must not run after it, but we must fit ourselves for the vision and then wait tranquilly for it, as the eye waits on the rising of the Sun which in its own time appears above the horizon and gives itself to our sight. Plotinus eye running patience Knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly. Plotinus ignorance beautiful knowledge We must close our eyes and invoke a new manner of seeing...a wakefulness that is the birthright of us all, though few put it to use. Plotinus birthright eye use Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us. Plotinus determine action doe Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine. Plotinus cutting light perfect And this is the life of the Gods, and of Godlike men, a life without love of the world, a flight of the Alone to the Alone. Plotinus flight life-is In this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view; the vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and act of vision have become identical. Plotinus contemplation vision views Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues. Plotinus beautiful beauty character It is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it. Plotinus all-things We are not separated from spirit, we are in it. Plotinus spirit Before we had our becoming here, we existed There, men other than now; we were pure souls. Intelligence inbound with the entire of reality, not fenced off, integral to that All. [...] Then it was as if One voice sounded. One word was uttered and from every side an ear attended and received and there was an effective hearing; now we are become a dual thing, no longer that which we were at first, dormant, and in a sense no longer present. Plotinus voice men reality Beauty is rather a light that plays over the symmetry of things than that symmetry itself. Plotinus light play beauty Never stop working on your statue until the divine glory of virtue shines out on you, until you see self-mastery enthroned upon its holy seat. Plotinus perseverance shining self Fear must be entirely banished. The purified soul will fear nothing. Plotinus fear-nothing soul fear
