Hermes Trismegistus

65. The generation of man is corruption; the corruption of man is the beginning of generation.

The excellence of the soul is understanding; for the man who understands is conscious, devoted, and already godlike.

Having made them rise, I became guide to my race, teaching them the words – how to be saved and in what manner – and I sowed the words of wisdom among them, and they were nourished from the ambrosial water.

As above, so below. As within, so without.

But this discourse, expressed in our paternal language, keeps clear the meaning of its words. The very quality of speech and of the Egyptian words have in themselves the energy of the object they speak of.

Therefore, my king, in so far as you have the power (who are all powerful), keep the discourse uninterpreted, lest mysteries of such greatness come to the Greeks, lest the extravagant, flaccid and (as it were) dandified Greek idiom extinguish something stately and concise, the energetic idiom of usage. For the Greeks have empty speeches, O king, that are energetic only in what they demonstrate, and this is the philosophy of the Greeks, an inane foolosophy of speeches. We, by contrast, use not speeches but sounds that are full of action. (Chapter XVI)

74. The Earth is brutish; the Heaven is reasonable or rational.

Philosophy is nothing else than striving through constant contemplation and saintly piety to attain knowledge of God.

If thou but settest foot on this path, thou shalt see it everywhere.

That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to perform the miracles of one only thing.

83. Avoid all conversation with the multitude or common people; for I would not have you subject to envy, much less to be ridiculous unto the multitude.

This is what you must know: that in you which sees and hears is the word of the lord, but your mind is god the father; they are not divided from one another for their union is life.

Humanity looked in awe upon the beauty and the everlasting duration of creation. The exquisite sky flooded with sunlight. The majesty of the dark night lit by celestial torches as the holy planetary powers trace their paths in the heavens in fixed and steady metre - ordering the growth of things with their secret infusions.

Entre las cosas admirables, sobrepasa a todas las demás el que el hombre haya llegado a conocer y a crear la naturaleza divina.

80. What is God? The immutable or unalterable good.
81. What is man? An unchangeable evil.

The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment