When you receive an impression of some pleasure, take care not to get carried away by it, as with impressions in general; but rather, make it wait for you, and allow yourself some slight delay. And next, think about these two moments in time, that in which you’ll enjoy the pleasure, and that in which you’ll come to repent after having enjoyed it and will reproach yourself; and set against all of that how you’ll rejoice if you’ve abstained from the pleasure, and will congratulate yourself for having done so. If you think, however, that a suitable occasion has come for you to engage in this task, take care that you’re not overcome by its allure, and by the pleasantness and attraction of it; but set against this the thought of how much better it is to be conscious of having gained a victory over it.

Epictetus, Handbook 34

[Plato] taught, then, that the Principle of all things is one, not two, as Empedocles believed, nor infinite, as the Epicureans thought; that this one principle is not a body, as the Stoics said, but incorporeal; that, being incorporeal, it is not life (or else everything would be alive) nor soul nor intelligence nor being (for the same negative reason), but the One, which he also calls the Good. After it, he says, are the Limit and the Infinite; then the intelligible world; then the supra-mundane, and then the intra-mundane Gods; then twelve orders of angels; then human souls; then those of irrational animals; next vegetative soul; after it body, material and immaterial, mortal and immortal; material form; finally matter.

Anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy 12.3-12

Or have you ever grasped [the Just itself, Beauty, or the Good] with any of your bodily senses? I am speaking of all things such as Bigness, Health, Strength and, in a word, the reality of all other things, that which each of them essentially is. Is what is most true in them contemplated through the body, or is this the position: whoever of us prepares himself best and most accurately to grasp that thing itself which he is investigating will come closest to the knowledge of it? Then he will do this most perfectly who approaches the object with thought alone, without associating any sight with his thought, or dragging in any sense perception with his reasoning, but who, using pure thought alone, tries to track down each reality pure and by itself, freeing himself as far as possible from eyes and ears and, in a word, from the whole body, because the body confuses the soul and does not allow it to acquire truth and wisdom whenever it is associated with it. Will not that man reach reality, Simmias, if anyone does?

Plato, Phaedo 65d-66a

Since, then, there exists soul which reasons about what is right and good, and discursive reasoning which enquires about the rightness and goodness of this or that particular thing, there must be some further permanent rightness from which arises the discursive reasoning in the realm of soul. Or how else would it manage to reason? And if soul sometimes reasons about the right and good and sometimes does not, there must be in us Intellect which does not reason discursively but always possesses the right, and there must be also the principle and cause and God of Intellect. He is not divided, but abides, and as he does not abide in place he is contemplated in many beings, in each and every one of those capable of receiving him as another self, just as the centre of a circle exists by itself, but every one of the radii in the circle has its point in the centre and the lines bring their individuality to it. For it is with something of this sort in ourselves that we are in contact with god and are with him and depend upon him; and those of us who converge towards him are firmly established in him.

Plotinus, Enneads 5.1.11

"The fountain and origin of all beings is the Good. For what everything strives for, and what everything stretches up towards, is the origin and goal of all things. The Good produces everything from itself, both the first things, and the intermediate things, and the lowest things. But it produces the first things contiguous to it and like itself. One Goodness produces many goodnesses, one Simplicity produces many simplicities, one Henad above all henads produces many henads, and one Origin produces many origins. For the same thing is One, and Origin, and Good, and God, since God is the first thing, and the cause of everything. But it is necessary that what is first must also be most simple, because what is composite in any way and has plurality is secondary to the one, from which the composite things and plurality come. ... It is also necessary that it should have the highest power, and all power. Superabundance of power means that in producing everything from itself it produces the things that are like it before the things that are unlike it. ... For all of the beings, which are differentiated from one another and are pluralised by their own proper differentia, are referred back each to their own single origin. (For instance, all beautiful things, whether in intellects, souls or bodies, are referred back to one fountain of beauty. ...)."

Simplicius, Commentary on Epictetus' Handbook 5.2-28

"It is well to invoke God at the beginning and end both of supper and dinner, not because he is in want of anything of the kind, but in order that the soul may be transfigured by the recollection of divinity. For since we proceed from him, and participate in a divine nature, we should honor him. Since also God is just, we should act justly in all things."

Diotogenes, On Sanctity

And if someone assumed that the origin of love was the longing for beauty itself which was there before in men's souls, and their recognition of it and kinship with it and unreasoned awareness that it is something of their own, he would hit, I think, on the truth about its cause. For the ugly is opposed to nature and to God. For nature when it creates looks towards beauty, and it looks towards the definite, which is "in the column of the good"; but the indefinite is ugly and belongs to the other column. And nature has its origin from above, from the Good, and obviously, from Beauty.

Plotinus, Enneads 3.5.1

"For all things pray according to the rank they occupy and hymn the Leaders who preside over the whole of their 'chains', either spiritually, rationally, naturally or in a sensory manner. So the sunflower moves with what makes it open as much as it can, and if one could hear how it makes the air vibrate as it turns around, one would realize from the sound that it is making a hymn to its King, of the kind that a plant can sing."

Proclus, On the Sacred Art

"After he had created people, Zeus immediately implanted in them all the possible human character traits, but he forgot about Shame. Since he didn't know how to get Shame inside the human body, he ordered her to go in from behind. At first Shame protested, considering Zeus's request to be beneath her dignity. When Zeus kept insisting, she said, 'All right, I will go in there, on the condition that if anything comes in there after me, I will leave immediately.' As a result, people who engage in sodomy have no sense of shame."

Aesop, Zeus and Shame

Again, therefore, attend to the assertions of our fathers on this subject. For they say, that the Demiurgus is the common father and king of all things, and that to other nations he has distributed Gods, who are the prefects of nations, and the curators of cities, each of which governs his own allotment, in an appropriate manner. For since in the father all things are perfect, and all things are one, but in the natures distributed from him, a different power has dominion in a different divinity, hence Mars presides over the warlike concerns of nations; Minerva over the same concerns in conjunction with wisdom; but Hermes over such as rather pertain to sagacity than bold undertakings; and thus the nations which are governed by the several divinities follow the essence of their presiding Gods.

Emperor Julian, Against the Christians

Image created by Twitter account @VirtueCultivate

"But again, if unification is in itself good, and all good tends to create unity, then the Good unqualified and the One unqualified merge in a single principle, a principle which makes things one and in doing so makes them good. 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 is goodness; the Good is one, and the One is primal good."

Proclus, Elements of Theology 13

The attendance offerings made to the dead on a battlefield in the normal course of observance corresponded closely to the traditional rites of necromantic evocation, as in the case of tomb attendance. This emerges with particular clarity from Plutarch's denoscription of the annual offerings made to the dead of the battle of Plataea, which were still made at the end of the first century AD., when he wrote. An elaborate procession went from the city to the battlefield. Offerings were made of wine, milk, olive oil, and sacred-spring water, as well as myrtle leaves, garlands, and myrrh. A black bull was sacrificed, and the dead were explicitly invited to drink its blood (no doubt about the blood offering here, but these glorious dead warriors should presumably be considered heroized). Prayers were made to chthonic Zeus and chthonic Hermes. Offerings of some sort were already being made to the dead of the battle by the citizens of Plataea in 427 B.C., at which point they were already hallowed by tradition. ~ Daniel Ogden

"It is possible to know oneself with respect to one's external possessions; and of course it is possible to know oneself with respect to one's body; and it is possible to know oneself as a civic or social person, when one knows oneself in the tripartition of one's soul; and it is possible to know oneself as a purificatory person, when one knows oneself in the act of liberation from the affections; and it is possible to know oneself as a contemplative person, when a person contemplates himself as liberated; it is possible to know oneself theologically, when a person knows himself according to his paradigmatic Form; and it is possible to know oneself as an inspired person, when a person knows himself as a unity and, thus bonded to his proper god, acts with inspiration."

Olympiodorus, On Plato's First Alcibiades 172.5

"Plotinus, chief with Plato among the professors of philosophy, in a treatise On the Virtues, arranges the grades of the virtues according to a proper and natural classification. In his scheme each of the above four virtues embraces four types: the first, political virtues; the second, cleansing virtues; the third, virtues of the purified mind; and the fourth, the exemplary virtues.

Man has political virtues because he is a social animal. By these virtues upright men devote themselves to their commonwealths, protect cities, revere parents, love their children, and cherish relatives; by these they direct the welfare of the citizens, and by these they safeguard their allies with anxious forethought and bind them with the liberality of their justice; by these "They have won remembrance among men." To have political prudence one must direct all his thoughts and actions by the standard of reason, and wish for or do nothing but what is right, and have regard for human affairs as he would for divine authority. In prudence we find reason, understanding, circumspection, foresight, willingness to learn, and caution. To have political courage, one must exalt his mind above all dread of danger, fear nothing except disgrace, and bear manfully both adversity and prosperity. Courage endows one with magnanimity, confidence, composure, nobleness, constancy, endurance, and steadfastness. To have political temperance, one must strive after nothing that is base, in no instance overstepping the bounds of moderation but subduing all immodest desires beneath the yoke of reason. Temperance is accompanied by modesty, humility, self-restraint, chastity, integrity, moderation, frugality, sobriety, and purity. To have political justice, one must safeguard for each man that which belongs to him. From justice comes uprightness, friendship, harmony, sense of duty, piety, love, human sympathy. By these virtues the good man is first made lord of himself and then ruler of the state, and is just and prudent in his regard for human welfare, never forgetting his obligations."

Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio 1.8.5-8

Many words, both base and noble, come to men’s ears;
Do not be perplexed by these nor allow them
To hinder you; and if some falsehood be told,
Gently withdraw. In everything do as I tell you!
Let no one persuade you by word or deed
To do or say what does not prove better for you.
Take counsel before the deed, so that no foolishness may arise;
It is a miserable man who acts and speaks thoughtlessly.

Golden Verses 21-28

To sum up the matter, as is the steersman in the ship, the charioteer in the chariot, the leader in the chorus, law in the city, the general in the army, even so is God in the Universe; save that to them their rule is full of weariness and disturbance and care, while to him it is without toil or labour and free from all bodily weakness. For, enthroned amid the immutable, he moves and revolves all things, where and how he will, in different forms and natures; just as the law of a city, fixed and immutable in the minds of those who are under it, orders all the life of the state. For in obedience to it, it is plain, the magistrates go forth to their duties, the judges to their several courts of justice, the councilors and members of the assembly to their appointed places of meeting... The various activities of the citizens in obedience to one ordinance or lawful authority are well expressed in the words of the poet,

And all the town is full of incense smoke,
And full of cries for aid and loud laments.

So must we suppose to be the case with that greater city, the universe. For God is to us a law, impartial, admitting not of correction or change, and better, methinks, and surer than those which are engraved upon tablets. Under his motionless and harmonious rule the whole ordering of heaven and earth is administered, extending over all created things through the seeds of life in each both to plants and to animals, according to genera and species. …

We call him Zen and Zeus, using the two names in the same sense, as though we should say 'him through whom we live'. He is called the son of Kronos and of Time, for he endures from eternal age to age. He is God of Lightning and Thunder, God of the Clear Sky and of Ether, God of the Thunderbolt and of Rain, so called after the rain and the thunderbolts and other physical phenomena. Moreover, after the fruits he is called the Fruitful God, after cities the City-God: he is God of Birth, God of the House-court, God of Kindred and God of our Fathers from his participation in such things. He is God of Comradeship and Friendship and Hospitality, God of Armies and of Trophies, God of Purification and of Vengeance and of Supplication and of Propitiation, as the poets name him, and in very truth the Saviour and God of Freedom, and to complete the tale of his noscripts, God of Heaven and of the World Below, deriving his names from all natural phenomena and conditions, inasmuch as he is himself the cause of all things.

pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos 400b-401a

Form is defined as an eternal model of things that are in accordance with nature. For most Platonists do not accept that there are forms of artificial objects, such as a shield or a lyre, nor of things that are contrary to nature, like fever or cholera, nor of individuals, like Socrates and Plato, nor yet of any trivial thing, such as dirt or chaff, nor of relations, such as the greater or the superior. For the forms are eternal and perfect thoughts of God.

They justify the existence of the forms in the following way also. Whether God is an intellect or is possessed of intellect, he has thoughts, and these are eternal and unchanging; and if this is the case, forms exist.

Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism 9.2 - 9.3

Zeus of the flashing bolt was the first to be born and the latest,
Zeus is the head and the middle; of Zeus were all things created;
Zeus is the stay of the earth and the stay of the star-spangled heaven;
Zeus is male and female of sex, the bride everlasting;
Zeus is the breath of all and the rush of unwearying fire;
Zeus is the root of the sea, and the sun and the moon in the heavens;
Zeus of the flashing bolt is the king and the ruler of all men,
Hiding them all away, and again to the glad light of heaven
Bringing them back at his will, performing terrible marvels.

Orphica 46

The height of foolishness is, not simply one’s being ignorant, but one’s being unaware of the very fact that one is ignorant and so consenting to false mental impressions, assuming things which are true to be false, as when they suppose that evil is beneficial and virtue a pernicious impediment; and indeed, the opinion stays with most people late into life, people who consider the committing of injustice a supreme benefit and acting rightly a detriment, and for that reason abhorring it. These Aristotle refers to as aged children, because their mind differs minimally from that of a child.

Calcidius, On Plato’s Timaeus 2.9.209