Simone Weil Quotes - Page 14

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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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• 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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• Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms.

  Simone Weil

  Peace, War, Struggle

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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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• 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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• 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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• Purity is the power to contemplate defilement.

  Simone Weil

  Power, Purity, Contemplating

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.122, Psychology Press

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• Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.

  Simone Weil

  Intelligent, Aggravation, Intelligence

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• In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention.

  Simone Weil

  Stars, Lying, Moon

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.121, Psychology Press

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• The only hope of socialism resides in those who have already brought about in themselves, as far as is possible in the society of today, that union between manual and intellectual labor which characterizes the society we are aiming at.

  Simone Weil

  Intellectual, Unions, Today

  Simone Weil (2013). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.22, Routledge

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• Man alone can enslave man.

  Simone Weil

  Men, Slavery

  Simone Weil (2013). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.90, Routledge

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• If we are suffering illness, poverty, or misfortune, we think we shall be satisfied on the day it ceases. But there too, we know it is false; so soon as one has got used to not suffering one wants something else.

  Simone Weil

  Thinking, World Suffering, Want Something

  Simone Weil (1998). “Simone Weil”

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• We should desire neither the immortality nor the death of any human being, whoever he may be, with whom we have to do.

  Simone Weil

  Desire, May, Immortality

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.15, Psychology Press

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• Rome is the Great Beast of atheism and materialism, adoring nothing but itself. Israel is the Great Beast of religion. Neither one nor the other is likable. The Great Beast is always repulsive

  Simone Weil

  Israel, Rome, Atheism

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.30, Psychology Press

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• Those who keep the masses of men in subjection by exercising force and cruelty deprive them at once of two vital foods, liberty and obedience; for it is no longer within the power of such masses to accord their inner consent to the authority to which they are subjected. Those who encourage a state of things in which the hope of gain is the principle motive take away from men their obedience, for consent which is its essence is not something which can be sold.

  Simone Weil

  Exercise, Men, Essence

  "The Needs of the Soul (1949)". "The Need for Roots". Book by Simone Weil, p. 97, 1949.

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• The only great spirit of our time.

  Simone Weil

  Time, Spirit, Our Time

  Simone Weil (2014). “Letter to a Priest”, p.2, Routledge

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• We must love all facts, not for their consequences, but because in each fact God is there present.

  Simone Weil

  God, Facts, God Is There

  Simone Weil (2013). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.267, Routledge

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• There is a certain kind of morality which is even more alien to good and evil than amorality is.

  Simone Weil

  Evil, Morality, Aliens

  "On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God". Book by Simone Weil, Translated by R. Rees, "The responsibility of writers," p. 169, 1968.

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• We should do only those righteous actions which we cannot stop ourselves from doing.

  Simone Weil

  Action, Should, Righteous

  Simone Weil (2013). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.150, Routledge

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• Concern for the symbol has completely disappeared from our science . And yet, if one were to give oneself the trouble, one could easily find, in certain parts at least of contemporary mathematics... symbols as clear, as beautiful, and as full of spiritual meaning as that of the circle and mediation. From modern thought to ancient wisdom the path would be short and direct, if one cared to take it.

  Simone Weil

  Beautiful, Spiritual, Circles

  Simone Weil (2002). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.286, Psychology Press

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• We possess nothing in the world - a mere chance can strip us of everything - except the power to say 'I.

  Simone Weil

  World, Chance, Mere

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.26, Psychology Press

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• Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.

  Simone Weil

  Punishment, Soul, Needs

  Simone Weil (2003). “The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind”, p.19, Routledge

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• science has now been for a long time - and to an ever-increasing extent - a collective enterprise. Actually, new results are always, in fact, the work of specific individuals; but, save perhaps for rare exceptions, the value of any result depends on such a complex set of interrelations with past discoveries and possible future researches that even the mind of the inventor cannot embrace the whole.

  Simone Weil

  Science, Past, Discovery

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

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• To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny.

  Simone Weil

  Doors, Tyrants, Morality

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.10, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world--and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish--she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.

  Simone Weil

  Country, Hate, Men

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.194, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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