Simone Weil Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  179 Copy quote

• 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

  146 Copy quote

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

  Simone Weil

  Christian, Religious, Adversity

  161 Copy quote

• 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

  120 Copy quote

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

  Simone Weil

  Beauty, Heart, Two

  125 Copy quote

• 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”

  71 Copy quote

• 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

  122 Copy quote

• 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

  82 Copy quote

• Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.

  Simone Weil

  Beautiful, Eternity, Mark

  Simone Weil (1978). “Lectures on Philosophy”, p.197, Cambridge University Press

  38 Copy quote

• 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

  29 Copy quote

• 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

  46 Copy quote

• Everybody knows that really intimate conversation is only possible between two or three. As soon as there are six or seven, collective language begins to dominate. That is why it is a complete misinterpretation to apply to the Church the words 'Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' Christ did not say two hundred, or fifty, or ten. He said two or three.

  Simone Weil

  Intimate Conversation, Names, Two

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.19, Routledge

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  40 Copy quote

• The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.

  Simone Weil

  Time, Past, Crime

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.48, Routledge

  14 Copy quote

• Prayer consists simply in giving to God all the careful attention of which the soul is capable.

  Simone Weil

  Prayer, Giving, Soul

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  21 Copy quote

• To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal.

  Simone Weil

  Christian, Prayer, Religion

  12 Copy quote

• It is only from the light which streams constantly from heaven that a tree can derive the energy to strike its roots deep into the soil. The tree is in fact rooted in the sky.

  Simone Weil

  Nature, Light, Sky

  18 Copy quote

• The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it.

  Simone Weil

  Inspirational, Beauty, Beautiful

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.43, Routledge

  37 Copy quote

• Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.

  Simone Weil

  Prayer, Attention

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.117, Psychology Press

  28 Copy quote

• 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".

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  50 Copy quote

• It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.

  Simone Weil

  People, Revolution, Opium

  Simone Weil (2013). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.596, Routledge

  14 Copy quote

• Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.

  Simone Weil

  Equality, Degrees, Needs

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.224, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  71 Copy quote

• Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude.

  Simone Weil

  Thank You, Gratitude, Joy

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.63, Psychology Press

  14 Copy quote

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