We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order.
PLOTINUSThe Soul of each one of us is sent, that the universe may be complete.
More Plotinus Quotes
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If someone with the right conduct tries to attain to something that lies outside of it, is his goal not the right conduct.
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God is not external to anyone, but is present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so.
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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.
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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.
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Pleasure and distress, fear and courage, desire and aversion, where have these affections and experiences their seat?
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The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.
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From 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.
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Mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts.
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The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky.
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In this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view.
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Before we had our becoming here, we existed There, men other than now; we were pure souls.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Knowing demands the organ fitted to the object.
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