Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinuswas a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his philosophy there are three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition. Historians of the 19th century invented the term Neoplatonism and applied it to him and his philosophy which was influential in Late Antiquity. Much of the biographical information about Plotinus comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads. His metaphysical writings have inspired centuries...
NationalityEgyptian
ProfessionPhilosopher
CountryEgypt
Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not fine yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown his work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow or beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine
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.
Knowledge has three degrees--opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.
Knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly.
Each one of us is part of the soul of the universe
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.
Withdraw into yourself and look.
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.
It is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it.
We are not separated from spirit, we are in it.
Fear must be entirely banished. The purified soul will fear nothing.
There is one and the same soul in many bodies.
Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.
Life is the flight of the alone to the alone.