Mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts.
PLOTINUSMankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts.
PLOTINUSBecome vision itself.
PLOTINUSOne principle must make the universe a single complex living creature, one from all.
PLOTINUSEverything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.
PLOTINUSWithdraw 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.
PLOTINUSNow we are become a dual thing, no longer that which we were at first, dormant, and in a sense no longer present.
PLOTINUSWhen we look outside of that on which we depend we ignore our unity; looking outward we see many faces; look inward and all is one head.
PLOTINUSAll things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
PLOTINUSIn this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view.
PLOTINUSFrom the Soul using the body as an instrument, it does not follow that the Soul must share the body’s experiences: a man does not himself feel all the experiences of the tools with which he is working.
PLOTINUSKnowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.
PLOTINUSIt is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it.
PLOTINUSCut 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.
PLOTINUSNever 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.
PLOTINUSBefore we had our becoming here, we existed There, men other than now; we were pure souls.
PLOTINUSThe means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.
PLOTINUS