Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being.
PLOTINUSThe vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and act of vision have become identical.
More Plotinus Quotes
-
-
All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
PLOTINUS -
It is in virtue of unity that beings are beings.
PLOTINUS -
Clearly, either in the Soul alone, or in the Soul as employing the body, or in some third entity deriving from both. And for this third entity, again, there are two possible modes: it might be either a blend or a distinct form due to the blending.
PLOTINUS -
Become vision itself.
PLOTINUS -
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 -
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.
PLOTINUS -
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 -
A dogma recognized throughout antiquity… (that) the soul expiates its sins in the darkness of the infernal regions and… afterwards… passes into new bodies, there to undergo new trials.
PLOTINUS -
When 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.
PLOTINUS -
Intelligence inbound with the entire of reality, not fenced off, integral to that All. […] Then it was as if One voice sounded.
PLOTINUS -
Why should I consent to the perpetuation of the image of this image?
PLOTINUS -
One word was uttered and from every side an ear attended and received and there was an effective hearing.
PLOTINUS -
We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.
PLOTINUS -
Withdraw into yourself and look.
PLOTINUS -
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