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. If a man could but be turned about, he would see at once God and himself and the All.
PlotinusThe 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.
PlotinusBefore 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.
PlotinusWe 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.
PlotinusBeauty 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.
PlotinusGod is not external to anyone, but is present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so.
PlotinusAnd 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.
PlotinusAll things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
PlotinusNature is but an image of wisdom, the last thing of the soul; nature being a thing which doth only do, but not know.
PlotinusThe soul in its nature loves God and longs to be at one with Him in the noble love of a daughter for a noble father; but coming to human birth and lured by the courtships of this sphere, she takes up with another love, a mortal, leaves her father and falls.
PlotinusBeing is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being. 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.
PlotinusA 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.
PlotinusIf someone with the right conduct tries to attain to something that lies outside of it, is his goal not the right conduct.
Plotinus