Withdraw into yourself and look.
And if you do not find 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
upon his work.
So do you also: 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, 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…
Never did eye see the sun
unless it had first become sunlike,
and never can the soul have
vision of the First Beauty unless itself be beautiful.
~ Plotinus (204 – 270 AD) Neo-Platonic Philosopher
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