Simone Weil Quotes - Page 15

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• War, which perpetuates itself under the form of preparation for war, has once and for all given the State an important role in production.

  Simone Weil

  War, Preparation, Important

  Simone Weil (2013). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.16, Routledge

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• The real sin of idolatry is always committed on behalf of something similar to the State.

  Simone Weil

  Real, Independence, Sin

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.115, Routledge

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• A well ordered society would be one where the State only had a negative action, comparable to that of a rudder: a light pressure at the right moment to counteract the first suggestion of any loss of equilibrium.

  Simone Weil

  Loss, Light, Suggestions

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.172, Psychology Press

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• I only read what I am hungry for at the moment when I have an appetite for it, and then I do not read, I eat.

  Simone Weil

  Book, Moments, Hungry

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.15, Routledge

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• Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it.

  Simone Weil

  Real, History, Imagination

  Simone Weil (1962). “Selected Essays: 1934-1943”, London, Oxford U.P

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• The same suffering is much harder to bear for a high motive than for a base one. The people [during World War II] who stood motionless, from one to eight in the morning, for the sake of having an egg, would have found it very difficult to do in order to save a human life.

  Simone Weil

  Morning, War, Eight

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• The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.

  Simone Weil

  Rely Upon, Rights, Tone

  Simone Weil (1977). “The Simone Weil Reader”

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• We must wish either for that which actually exists or for that which cannot in any way exist or, still better, for both. That which is and that which cannot be are both outside the realm of becoming.

  Simone Weil

  Wish, Way, Becoming

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.175, Psychology Press

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• Why is it that reality, when set down untransposed in a book, sounds false?

  Simone Weil

  Book, Reality, Sound

  Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.343, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• An imaginary perfection is automatically at the same level as I who imagine it neither higher nor lower.

  Simone Weil

  Perfection, Levels, Imagine

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.99, Psychology Press

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• The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.

  Simone Weil

  Doors, World, Way

  Simone Weil (1952). “Gravity and Grace”, p.200, U of Nebraska Press

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• Conformity is an imitation of grace.

  Simone Weil

  Grace, Conformity, Imitation

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.167, Psychology Press

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• one is never got out of the cave, one comes out of it.

  Simone Weil

  Caves

  Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.36, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies.

  Simone Weil

  Education, Real, Attention

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.32, Routledge

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• Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.

  Simone Weil

  Mother, Father, Meditation

  "Chance (1947)". "Gravity and Grace". Book by Simone Weil, p. 277, 1947.

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• Algebra and money are essentially levelers; the first intellectually, the second effectively.

  Simone Weil

  Money, Math, Firsts

  Simone Weil (1952). “Gravity and Grace”, p.209, U of Nebraska Press

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• Art has no immediate future, because all art is collective and there is no more collective life.

  Simone Weil

  Art, Art Is, Collectives

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.151, Psychology Press

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• Intellectual adherence is never owed to anything whatsoever, for it is never in any degree a voluntary thing. Attention alone is voluntary. It alone forms the subject of an obligation.

  Simone Weil

  Intellectual, Degrees, Attention

  Simone Weil (2014). “Letter to a Priest”, p.38, Routledge

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• To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stressing their pettiness, because it is in their work that they have put the best of themselves.

  Simone Weil

  Stress, Writing, Biographies

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• Nothing is less instructive than a machine.

  Simone Weil

  Machines

  Simone Weil (2009). “Formative Writings (Routledge Revivals)”, p.140, Routledge

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• The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

  Simone Weil

  Intelligent, Intelligence, Roles

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.130, Psychology Press

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• We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads. We even lose consciousness of the situation, we just submit. Any re-awakening of thought is then painful.

  Simone Weil

  Hurt, Horse, Pain

  Simone Weil (2009). “Formative Writings (Routledge Revivals)”, p.124, Routledge

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• A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.

  Simone Weil

  War, Self, Ready

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.159, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.

  Simone Weil

  Art, Wine, Ought

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