Where the desire of any soul is, and such as is its condition, there each of us nearly resides, and such for the most part each of us subsists.  Platon     

 

For each thing is that which it is in itself; but it becomes desirable in consequence of being coloured over by the good, which imparts to it, as it were, an alluring gracefulness, and infuses love in the natures that aspire after good. Hence, soul receiving an influx from thence into itself, is moved, is divinely inspired, is filled with vehement desire, and becomes inflamed with love.  Plotinos   

 

Symmetry is necessary to the union of the things that are mingled, and to an appropriate communion. But truth is necessary to purity. And beauty to order; which also renders the whole lovely. For when each thing in the mixture has a place adapted to itself, it renders both the elements, and the arrangement resulting from them, beautiful.  Proklos

 

I am the things that are,

That will be,

And that have been.

No one has ever laid open 

The garment by which I am concealed.

The fruit which I brought forth

Was the sun.   Song of Isis

​

The Platonic philosophy, indeed, as it necessarily combines truth with elegance, is naturally adapted to captivate and allure the female mind, in which the love of symmetry and gracefulness is generally predominant.  Hence, in every age, except the present, many illustrious females have adorned the Platonic schools, by the brilliancy of their genius, and an uncommon vigour and profundity of thought...   Thomas Taylor

 

There is a sense in which we may think of the whole life of the Universe, seen and unseen, conscious and unconscious, as an act of worship, glorifying its origin, sustainer, and end.   Evelyn Underhill

 

All things are connected, this we know. Man did not weave the web of life, he is simply a strand in it. But whatever he does to the web he does to himself...  Chief Seattle

 

There is no purifier like unto wisdom in all this world, and he who seeks it will find it - being grown perfect - verily in himself.   Sri Krishna

 

The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end. The extent to which this generation of circles, wheel without wheel, will go, depends on the force or truth of the individual soul.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

​

Without the Gods how short a period stands,

The proudest monument of mortal hands...  Homer 

 

Aphrodite, take the nectar

And delicately pour it

Into golden cups

And mingle joy with our celebration...  Sappho

 

Little children have known always

What Plotinos taught the wise,

That the world we see, we are:

Soul's country beyond time and place

Her bright self-image in a glass,

Tree, leaf and flower,

Sun, moon and farthest star...  Kathleen Raine

​

I have a dream...  Martin Luther King

 

Draw me back to the world of soul,

That I may be what I am;

At one with every living thing,

Absorbed by fire that never burns -

A light to light returns...  GWJ  

 

Meditate upon difficult things while they are yet easy...  Lao Tzu

 

He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom...  J.R.R. Tolkien  

 

If you exterminate philosophy from life

You exterminate that which is its vivid spark,

That which is breathing in it and vital,

And that which alone knows how to pray.   Maximos Tyrios

 

Perceive you not, said she,

That in beholding the beautiful

With that eye, with which alone

It is possible to behold it,

Thus, and thus only,

Could a man ever attain to generate,

Not the images or semblances of virtue,

As not having his intimate commerce 

With an image or a semblance;

But virtue true, real, and substantial,

From the converse and embraces 

Of that which is real and true.

 

Thus begetting true virtue,

And bringing her up till she is grown mature,

He would become a favourite of the Gods;

And at length would be,

If any man ever be,

Himself one of the immortals.  Diotima the Prophetess, in Platon

​

This is the most perfect fruit of philosophy, to familiarize and lead the soul back to things truly beautiful, to liberate her from this terrene abode as from a certain subterranean cavern of material life, elevate her to etheral splendours, and place her in the islands of the blessed.   Thomas Taylor