I read this in a book last night and I thought it was really beautiful. I will be the first to admit that I'm far from perfect and I have a lot of work to do on myself to be the person I want to be - but this writing gave me a great visual of how to work at becoming a beautiful person...and I find it fascinating that something written in 270 A.D. holds so much truth today...
"And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet,act as the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful:
he cuts away here, he smooths there,
he makes this line lighter, the 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 chiseling your statue,
until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue,
until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine."
---Plotinus, 270 A.D.
(Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism)
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