Simone Weil Quotes

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Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Simone Weil

Kindness, Caring, Generosity

Letter to Joë Bousquet on April 13, 1942. "Correspondance", published by Editions l'Age d'Homme in Lausanne, p. 18, 1982.

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Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on.

Simone Weil

Pain, Hands, Suffering

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We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

Simone Weil

Christian, Religious, Adversity

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Just as the power of the sun is the only force in the natural universe that causes a plant to grow against gravity, so the grace of God is the only force in the spiritual universe that causes a person to grow against the gravity of their own ego.

Simone Weil

Spiritual, Humility, Acceptance

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There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction.

Simone Weil

Beauty, Heart, Two

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Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

Simone Weil

Crush, Sides, Oppression

Simone Weil (1978). “Lectures on Philosophy”, p.139, Cambridge University Press

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The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say, "What are you going through?

Simone Weil

Love, Inspirational, Friendship

Simone Weil (1973). “Waiting for God”

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To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.

Simone Weil

Soul, Important, Needs

Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.43, Routledge

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Whenever one tries to suppress doubt , there is tyranny .

Simone Weil

Doubt, Trying, Tyranny

Simone Weil (1978). “Lectures on Philosophy”, p.103, Cambridge University Press

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The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

Simone Weil

Pride, Intelligent, Men

Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.26, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Love: To feel with one's whole self the existence of another being.

Simone Weil

Love You, Self, Existence

Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.9, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.

Simone Weil

Brother, Betrayal, Military

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God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.

Simone Weil

Reason, Should, God's Love

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.62, Psychology Press

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Compassion directed toward oneself is true humility.

Simone Weil

Humility, Compassion, Oneself

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The need of truth is more sacred than any other need.

Simone Weil

Needs, Sacred, Truth Is

"The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind".

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Power ... is the supreme end for all those who have not understood.

Simone Weil

Power, Ends, Understood

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.146, Psychology Press

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If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.

Simone Weil

Money, Men, Want

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To die for God is not a proof of faith in God. To die for an unknown and repulsive convict who is a victim of injustice, that is a proof of faith in God.

Simone Weil

Faith In God, Injustice, Victim

Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.144, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.

Simone Weil

Emptiness, Sin

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.22, Psychology Press

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Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

Simone Weil

Evil, Way

Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.5, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.

Simone Weil

Heart, World, Longing

Simone Weil, Janet Patricia Little (2003). “Simone Weil on Colonialism: An Ethic of the Other”, p.21, Rowman & Littlefield

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A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

Simone Weil

Kindness, Optimistic, Mean People

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.72, Psychology Press

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The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.

Simone Weil

Spiritual, Reality, Aggravation

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.129, Psychology Press

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Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.

Simone Weil

Tyrants, Evil, Politics

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.71, Psychology Press

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Love is not consolation, it is light.

Simone Weil

Love, Life, Light

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.14, Psychology Press

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Born: February 3, 1909
Died: August 24, 1943
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

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