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“For I am entirely of opinion, that all persons, endued with even the smallest portion of understanding, must deem the knowledge of the real essence of things - the knowledge of that kind of being whose nature is invariable - to be by far the most certain and true knowledge." - Socrates, The Philebus
 

 “The idea of the good is the greatest discipline." - Socrates, The Republic

“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.” - Demophilus the Pythagorean

Great nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine,
Who joy'st in peace; to nourish corn is thine. 
Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair, 
Harvest and threshing are thy constant care. 
Lovely delightful queen, by all desir'd,
Who dwell'st in Eleusina's holy vales retir'd.
Only-begotten, much-producing queen, 
All flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green. 
Bright Goddess, come, with summer's rich increase 
Swelling and pregnant, leading smiling Peace; 
Come with fair Concord and imperial Health, 
And join with these a needful store of wealth.

- Orphic Hymn to Demeter

“For if we are temperate, we shall still continue to be so, though these calamities may befall us, and if we are contemplators of true beings, neither shall we be plundered of this habit; but all these dreadful events taking place, we shall still persevere in celebrating the rulers of all things, and in investigating the causes of effects.” - Proclus, On Providence, Fate, and that which is in our Power, 22, 20

“By mutual confidence and mutual aid,
Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made;
The wise new prudence from the wise acquire,
And one brave hero fans another's fire.”
                  (The Iliad, Book X, trans. Pope)

“For becoming man he ceases to be the universe; but when he ceases to be man as Plato says, he raises himself on high, and governs the world. For being made of the whole, he also makes the whole.” (Plotinus, En. V, viii, 7)

“The universe is always happy, and our soul will likewise be happy, when it is assimilated to the universe; for thus it will be led back to its cause.”   Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus, 2D

On the essence of soul

  The Essence, very near to the impartible, which we assert to belong to the Kind we are now dealing with, is at once an Essence and an entrant into body; upon embodiment, it experiences a partition unknown before it thus bestowed itself.
  In whatsoever bodies it occupies- even the vastest of all, that in which the entire universe is included- it gives itself to the whole without abdicating its unity.
  This unity of an Essence is not like that of body, which is a unit by the mode of continuous extension, the mode of distinct parts each occupying its own space. Nor is it such a unity as we have dealt
with in the case of quality.
  The nature, at once divisible and indivisible, which we affirm to be soul has not the unity of an extended thing: it does not consist of separate sections; its divisibility lies in its presence at every point of the recipient, but it is indivisible as dwelling entire in the total and entire in any part.
  To have penetrated this idea is to know the greatness of the soul and its power, the divinity and wonder of its being, as a nature transcending the sphere of Things.
  Itself devoid of mass, it is present to all mass: it exists here and yet is There, and this not in distinct phases but with unsundered identity: thus it is "parted and not parted," or, better, it has never known partition, never become a parted thing, but remains a self-gathered integral, and is "parted among bodies" merely in the sense that bodies, in virtue of their own sundered existence, cannot receive it unless in some partitive mode; the partition, in other words, is an occurrence in body not in soul. (Plotinus, En. IV, ii, 1, trans. MacKenna)

“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.” (Plato, The Laws, 904c)

“The Platonic tradition may be likened to an underground river that from time to time sends up a spring; wherever its waters flow, the soul is reborn, and with it the conception of intellectual form, the beautiful, and true art.”   (Kathleen Raine)

“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 which aspire after good.” (Plotinus, Ennead VI, vii, 22)

“Without the Gods how short a period stands
 The proudest monument of mortal hands.”   (Homer, The Iliad)

“To endeavour after beautiful attainments is beautiful, as likewise to endure whatever may happen to be the result of our endeavours.” (Socrates, Phaedrus, 274a)

“Since we were formally intellectual natures, we ought not only to think earnestly of the way, however long and laborious, by which we may return to things truly our own; but that we may meet with a more favourable reception from our proper kindred, we should meditate in what manner we may divest ourselves of everything foreign from our true country, and recall to our memory those dispositions and habits, without which we cannot be admitted by our own, and which from long disuse have departed from our souls. For this purpose we must lay aside whatever we have associated to ourselves from a mortal nature; and hasten our return to the contemplation of the simple and immutable light of good. We must divest ourselves of the various garments of mortality, by which our true beauty is concealed; and enter the place of contest naked, and without the incumberance of dress, striving for the most glorious of all prizes, the Olympiad of the soul.” (Porphyry)

“Philosophy is indeed the science of living perfectly, and is, above all things, the cause to souls of a perfect life.” (Iamblichus)

The paternal self-begotten intellect, understanding his works, disseminated in all things the bond of love, heavy with fire, that all things might remain loving for an infinite time; that the connected series of things might intellectually remain in the light of the Father; and that the elements of the world might continue running in love. (Chaldean Oracle, from Proc. in Tim. 155E)

Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for men if they have souls which cannot understand their language. (Heraclitus, frag. 198 KRS)

The perception of the highest God is not effected by science, nor by intelligence, like other intelligibles, but by the presence of him, which is a mode of knowledge superior to that of science. (Plotinus, Ennead VI, ix, 4)

Universally all desire of things good, and all that longing after happiness, which is in every individual of human kind, is the mighty Deity of Love, who by secret ways and stratagems subdues and governs the hearts of all. (Plato, The Symposium, 205d).

Everyone, therefore, chooses the love of beauty after his own fashion, and, as if he considered it with respect to himself a God, he fabricates and adorns it like a statue, and as that which is the object of his adoration and sacrifice (Plato, The Phaedrus, 252d).

“That which is divine is beautiful, wise, and good, and whatever can be asserted of a similar kind. And with these indeed the winged nature of the soul is especially nourished and increased . . .” – Socrates, Phaedrus

“Since the roots of our natures are established in divinity, from which also we are produced, we should tenaciously adhere to our root; for streams also of water, and other offspring of the earth, when their roots are cut off become rotten and dry.” - Demophilus

There also was the abode of the gods, pure Olympus, and their assembly, and infinite riches were spread around in the gathering, the Muses of Pieria were beginning a song like clear-voiced singers. And on the shield was a harbour with a safe haven from the irresistible sea, made of refined tin wrought in a circle, and it seemed to heave with waves. - The Shield of Heracles, Hesiod, trans. Evelyn-White

But this degree of excellence, becoming to a man, can never be obtained without much labour and study; and a prudent man will not toil for its acquisition, that he may speak and act so as to be pleasing to men; but rather that, to the utmost of his ability, he may speak and act in such a manner as may be acceptable to the Gods. For men wiser than us, O Tisias, say that he who is endued with intellect ought not to make it the principal object of his study how he may gratify his fellow servants, but how he may please good masters, and this from good means. So that, if the circuit is long, you ought not to wonder: for it is not to be undertaken in the manner which seems proper to you, but for the sake of mighty concerns. (Socrates, Phaedrus, 274a)

I beseech all the Gods and Goddesses to lead my intellect to the proposed theory, and, enkindling in me the splendid light of truth, to expand my dianoëtic power to the science of beings, to open the gates of my soul to the reception of the divine narration of Plato, and, conducting, as to a port, my knowledge to the most splendid of being, to liberate me from an abundance of false wisdom, and the wandering about non-beings, by a more intellectual converse with real beings, through which alone the eye of the soul is nourished and watered, as Socrates says in the Phædrus. And may the intelligible Gods impart to me a perfect intellect; the intellectual, an anagogic power; the supermundane rulers, an energy indissoluble and liberated from material knowledge; the governors of the world, a winged life; the angelic choirs, a true unfolding into light of divine concerns; beneficent dæmons, a plenitude of inspiration from the Gods; and heroes, a magnanimity permanently venerable and elevated! (Proclus’ prayer with which he begins his Commentary on the Parmenides)

"Let us also sacrifice, but let us sacrifice in such a manner as is proper, offering different sacrifices to different powers. To that God, indeed, who is above all things, as a certain wise man says, neither fumigating nor consecrating any thing sensible. For there is nothing material, which, to an immaterial nature, is not immediately impure. Hence neither is external language adapted to him, nor that which is internal when it is defiled by any passion of the soul; but we should adore him in pure silence, and with pure conceptions concerning him. It is necessary, therefore, that, being conjoined and assimilated to him, we should offer the elevation of ourselves to Divinity as a sacred sacrifice; for thus we shall both celebrate him and procure our own salvation. In the soul's contemplation, therefore, of this divinity, unattended by the passions, the sacrifice to him receives its completion; but his progeny, the intelligible gods, are to be celebrated vocally by hymns. For to each of the gods the first fruits are to be sacrificed of what he imparts to us, and through which he nourishes and preserves us. As, therefore, the husbandmen offers his first fruits from handfuls of fruits and acorns, so also we should sacrifice from beautiful conceptions concerning the gods, giving thanks for those things of which they have imparted to us the contemplation, and that, through the vision of themselves, they truly nourish us, associating with and appearing to us, and shining upon us for our salvation." Porphyry de Abstinentia, TTS vol. II.

There are divine dances: in the first place, that of the Gods; in the second place, that of divine souls: in the third place, the revolution of the celestial divinities, viz. of the seven planets, and the inerratic sphere, is called a dance: in the fourth place, those who are initiated in the mysteries perform a certain dance: and, in the last place, the whole life of a philosopher is a dance. Terpsichore, therefore, is the inspective guardian of all dancing. Who then are those that honour the goddess in the dance? Not those who dance well, but those who live well through the whole of the present existence, elegantly arranging their life, and dancing in symphony with the universe. Hermeas on the Phaedrus.