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 chiseling 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.

—Plotinus