Simone Weil Quotes - Page 12

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• As for the spirit of poverty, I do not remember any moment when it was not in me, although only to that unhappily small extent compatible with my imperfection. I fell in love with Saint Francis of Assisi as soon as I came to know about him. I always believed and hoped that one day Fate would force upon me the condition of a vagabond and a beggar which he embraced freely. Actually I felt the same way about prison.

  Simone Weil

  Fate, Imperfection, One Day

  "Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)".

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• The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded upon the spirituality of work.

  Simone Weil

  Lying, Greatness, Civilization

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

  8 Copy quote

• To be innocent is to bear the weight of the entire universe. It is to throw away the counterweight.

  Simone Weil

  Weight, Bears, Innocent

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.91, Psychology Press

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• We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.

  Simone Weil

  God, Contemplating, Wretchedness

  "Attention and Will (1947)". "Gravity and Grace". Book by Simone Weil, p. 216, 1947.

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• It is precisely those artists and writers who are most inclined to think of their art as the manifestation of their personality who are in fact the most in bondage to public taste.

  Simone Weil

  Art, Creativity, Thinking

  Simone Weil (2014). “Letter to a Priest”, p.65, Routledge

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• Whoever is uprooted himself uproots others. Whoever is rooted himself doesn't uproot others.

  Simone Weil

  Roots, Rooted

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.45, Routledge

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• There are only two sorts of greatness: true greatness, which is of a spiritual order, and the old, old lie of world conquest. Conquest is an ersatz greatness.

  Simone Weil

  Spiritual, Lying, Greatness

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.94, Routledge

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• Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

  Simone Weil

  Pain, Roots, Evil

  Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.69, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.

  Simone Weil

  Humility, Power, Order

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.128, Psychology Press

  8 Copy quote

• Academic work is one of those fields which contain a pearl so precious that it is worth while to sell all our possessions, keeping nothing for ourselves, in order to be able to acquire it.

  Simone Weil

  Education, Order, Academic Work

  Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.36, Routledge

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• Education-whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people-consists in creating motives.

  Simone Weil

  Education, Children, Creating

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• If we concentrate our attention on trying to solve a problem of geometry, and if at the end of an hour we are no nearer to doing so than at the beginning, we have nevertheless been making progress each minute of that hour in another more mysterious dimension. Without knowing or feeling it, this apparent barren affort has brought more light into the soul.

  Simone Weil

  Light, Knowing, Soul

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

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• the instruments of power - arms, gold, machines, magical or technical secrets - always exist independently of him who disposes of them, and can be taken up by others. Consequently all power is unstable.

  Simone Weil

  Taken, Power, Secret

  Simone Weil (2001). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.64, Psychology Press

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• There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.

  Simone Weil

  Atheist, Two, Atheism

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.114, 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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• Contemplating an object fixedly with the mind, asking myself, 'What is it?' without thinking of any other object or relating it to anything else for hours on end.

  Simone Weil

  Thinking, Mind, Vision

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• Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure.

  Simone Weil

  Life, Order, Doe

  Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.10, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.

  Simone Weil

  Evil, Infinity, Hell

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

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• School children and students who love God should never say: "For my part I like mathematics"; "I like French"; "I like Greek." They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.

  Simone Weil

  Prayer, Children, School

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

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• The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment ... is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.

  Simone Weil

  Men, Hands, Silence

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

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• The whole of our civilization is founded on specialization, which implies the enslavement of those who execute to those who coordinate.

  Simone Weil

  Civilization, Bureaucracy, Specialization

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• Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.

  Simone Weil

  Destiny, Ideas, Progress

  Simone Weil (2015). “First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge”, p.79, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• A society like the Church, which claims to be Divine is perhaps more dangerous on account of the ersatz good which it contains then on account of the evil which sullies it. Something of the social labelled divine: an intoxicating mixture which carries with it every sort of license. Devil disguised.

  Simone Weil

  Evil, Church, Mixtures

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.166, Psychology Press

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• A man whose mind feels that it is captive would prefer to blind himself to the fact. But if he hates falsehood, he will not do so; and in that case he will have to suffer a lot. He will beat his head against the wall until he faints. He will come to again

  Simone Weil

  Wall, Hate, Men

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

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• It is impossible that the whole of truth should not be present at every time and every place, available for anyone who desires it.

  Simone Weil

  Truth, Desire, Impossible

  Simone Weil (1970). “First and last notebooks”

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