Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming.

The Golden Sentences of Democrates 7

Thus all beings proceed from, and are comprehended in the first being; all intellects emanate from one first intellect; all souls from one first soul; all natures blossom from one first nature; and all bodies proceed from the vital and luminous body of the world. And lastly, all these great monads are comprehended in the first one, from which both they and all their depending series are unfolded into light. Hence this first one is truly the unity of unities, the monad of monads, the principle of principles, the God of Gods, one and all things, and yet one prior to all.

Thomas Taylor, The Theology of the Greeks

Hermes, the god who presides over rational discourse, has long been considered, quite rightly, to be the common patron of all priests; he who presides over true knowledge about the gods is one and the same always and everywhere. It is to him that our ancestors in particular dedicated the fruits of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.

Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 1.1

Whoever then is advanced thus far in the mysteries of Love by a right and regular progress of contemplation, approaching now to perfect intuition, suddenly he will discover, bursting into view, a beauty astonishingly admirable; that very beauty, to the gaining a sight of which the aim of all his preceding studies and labours had been directed: a beauty, whose peculiar characters are these: In the first place, it never had a beginning, nor will ever have an end, but always IS, and always flourishes in perfection, unsusceptible of growth or of decay. ... It resides not in any other being, not in any animal, for instance; nor in the earth, nor in the heavens, nor in any other part of the universe: but, simple and separate from other things, it subsists alone with itself, and possesses an essence eternally uniform. All other forms which are beauteous participate of this; but in such a manner they participate, that by their generation or destruction this suffers no diminution, receives no addition, nor undergoes any kind of alteration. When from those lower beauties, reascending by the right way of Love, a man begins to gain a sight of this supreme beauty, he must have almost attained somewhat of his end. Now to go, or to be led by another, along the right way of Love, is this: Beginning from those beauties of lower rank, to proceed in a continual ascent, all the way proposing this highest beauty as the end; and using the rest but as so many steps in the ascent; to proceed from one to two, from two to all beauteous bodies; from the beauty of bodies to that of souls; from the beauty of souls to that of arts; from the beauty of arts to that of disciplines; until at length from the disciplines he arrives at that discipline which is the discipline of no other thing than of that supreme beauty; and thus finally attains to know what is the beautiful itself.

Plato, Symposium 210e - 211c

If you want to make progress, put up with being thought foolish and silly with regard to external things, and don’t even wish to give the impression of knowing anything about them; and if some people come to think that you’re somebody of note, regard yourself with distrust.

Epictetus, The Handbook 13

May one of you show himself to be such a person, so that I can say, 'Enter, young man, into what is your own, for you are destined to become an adornment to philosophy; yours are these goods, yours these books, yours these discourses.' And then, when he has laboured in this fine field of study and proved his mastery, let him come back to me and say, 'I want indeed to be free from passion and disturbance of mind, but I also want, as a pious person, a philosopher, and a diligent student, to know what my duty is towards the gods, towards my parents, towards my brother, towards my country, and towards strangers.' Pass on now to the second field of study; for that too is yours. ...

No, one hears nothing like that, but rather, 'I want to know what Chrysippus has to say in his treatise about 'the Liar.’’ Why don't you go off and hang yourself, you wretch, if that is really what you want? And what good will it do you to know it? You'll read the whole book from one end to the other while grieving all the while, and you'll be trembling when you expound it to others.

Epictetus, Discourses 2.17

Hence it is that things which in some fashion have fallen away from their good are at the same stroke deprived of participation of unity; and in like manner things which have lost their portion in unity, being infected with division, are deprived of their good. Goodness, then, is unification, and unification goodness; the Good is one, and the One is primal good.

Proclus, Elements of Theology 13

The courageous man is not only he who conquers his enemies, but also he who conquers his pleasures. Some men are masters of cities but slaves of women.

Democritus, Ethical Fragments 287

Beyond all bodies is the soul's essence; beyond all souls, the intellective principle; and beyond all intellective substances, the One.

For every body is moved by something not itself: self-movement is contrary to its nature, but by communication in soul it is moved from within, and because of soul it has life. ...

Soul again, being moved by itself, has a rank inferior to the unmoved principle which is unmoved even in its activity. ... Now Intelligence is such an unmoved cause of motion, eternally active without change. ...

Yet again, the One is prior to Intelligence. For the Intelligence, though unmoved, is yet not unity: in knowing itself, it is object to its own activity.

Proclus, Elements of Theology 20

The intellect of the Father made a crashing noise, understanding, with unwearied counsel, omniform ideas. But with winged speed they leaped forth from one fountain: for both the counsel and the end were from the Father. In consequence too of being allotted an intellectual fire, they are divided into other intellectual forms: for the king previously placed in the multiform world, an intellectual incorruptible impression, the vestige of which hastening through the world, causes the world to appear invested with form, and replete with all-various ideas, of which there is one fountain. From this fountain other immense distributed ideas rush with a crashing noise, bursting forth about the bodies of the world, and are bourne along its terrible bosoms, like swarms of bees. They turn themselves too on all sides, and nearly in all directions. They are intellectual conceptions from the paternal fountain, plucking abundantly the flower of the fire of sleepless time. But a self-perfect fountain pours forth primogenial ideas from the primary vigour of the Father.

Chaldean Oracles fragment 37

When you relax your attention for a short while, don't imagine that you'll be able to recover it whenever you please, but bear this in mind, that because of the error that you've committed today, your affairs will necessarily proceed far worse in every respect. For to begin with, and most seriously of all, a habit of inattention will grow up in you, and then a habit of deferring any effort to pay attention. ...

And is there anything whatever in life that is done better by those who remain inattentive? ...

Don't you realize that when you've let your mind roam free, it is no longer in your power to call it back, either to decorum, or to self-respect, or to good order? But instead you do everything that comes into your head; you follow your impulses.

[Give your attention to] those general principles that you should always have at hand, so as not to go to sleep, or get up, or drink or eat, or converse with others, without them, namely, that no one is master over another person's choice, and that it is in choice alone that our good and evil lie. ...

'But I haven't pleased So-and-so.' - Is he an action of mine, then; is he a judgment of mine? - 'No' - Then why should I trouble myself any longer? - 'But he passes for being a man of some importance.' - Let him look to that, and those who think him so, but I for my part have someone whom I must please, whom I must submit to, whom I must obey, namely, God, and after him, myself.

Epictetus, Discourses 4.12

Having a daily routine of devotion and contemplation in accordance with the principles of this tradition can immediately make a huge positive difference in your life. Do not get so bogged down in the technicalities of metaphysics or concerns about perfect historical accuracy that you do little or nothing. Get started now.

A good place to start if you are unsure is with a simple prayer (you can find many examples in this channel) & incense along with meditation on the Golden Verses or The Handbook (Enchiridion) of Epictetus.

So we'd be right if we said that wickedness is discord and sickness of the soul. Well then, suppose something that's in motion aims at a target and tries to hit it, but on every try passes by it and misses. Are we going to say that it does this because it's properly proportioned or because it's out of proportion? But we know that no soul is willingly ignorant of anything. But ignorance occurs precisely when a soul tries for the truth but swerves aside from understanding and so is beside itself. So we have to take it that an ignorant soul is ugly and out of proportion.

Plato, Sophist 228b-d

Gold-helmeted, strong Ares, chariot-mounted,
Hard in your will, hand, shield, and spear; bronze-armored,
Staunch city saver, bulwark of Olympus,
Father of Victory, helper of Themis,
Tyrant to enemies, leader of good men,
King over manliness! Your fiery globe whirls
Among the seven planets' tracks, your horses
Blazing forever over the third orbit.
Hear me, ally of mortals, maker of fine youth;
Rain gently from on high into my being
Brightness and martial strength. Let me have power
To shake out of my head the bitter panic,
Defeating with my mind my soul's false impulse,
And yet keep down the temper that provokes me
Toward icy strife. But, blessed god, give courage -
The kind that lives in peace among the mild laws,
Away from combat and death's savage demons.

Homeric Hymn To Ares

Illustration of Queen Dido of Carthage preparing a ritual sacrifice to goddess Juno, 400 CE.

@collispalatinus

Everything you do and say and think should be predicated on the possibility of your imminent departure from life. But, if the gods exist, leaving this world can’t be something to fear, because they wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.11

But it is necessary that the rational soul should be immortal, because it knows the gods; for nothing mortal knows that which is immortal.

Sallust, On the Gods and the World Chapter VIII

That the most proper mode of venerating this great principle of principles [The One] is to extend in silence the ineffable parturitions of the soul to its ineffable co-sensation; and that if it be at all lawful to celebrate it, it is to be celebrated as a thrice unknown darkness, as the God of all Gods, and the unity of all unities, as more ineffable than all silence, and more occult than all essence, as holy among the holies, and concealed in its first progeny, the intelligible Gods.

Thomas Taylor, The Theology of the Greeks

To desire the impossible is the mark of a slave and a fool; it is the behavior of one who is a stranger in the world, and is fighting against God through the only means that is available to him, through his own judgments.

Epictetus, Discourses 3.24

Surely anyone with any sense at all will always call upon a god before setting out on any venture, whatever its importance.

Plato, Timaeus, 27c

The Gods are not some sort of supernatural mafia that will whack us unless we pay them off for protection via sacrifices and offerings. This is a common view, but it is wrong.