Simone Weil Quotes - Page 5

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Justice consists in seeing that no harm is done to men. Whenever a man cries inwardly: 'Why am I being hurt?' harm is being done to him. He is often mistaken when he tries to define the harm, and why and by whom it is being inflicted on him. But the cry itself is infallible.

Simone Weil

Hurt, Men, Compassion

Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.30, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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It is not for man to seek, or even to believe in, God.
He only has to refuse his ultimate love to everything that is not God.
This refusal does not presuppose any belief.
It is enough to recognize what is obvious to any mind:
that all the goods of this world, past, present, and future, real or imaginary,
are finite and limited and radically incapable of satisfying
the desire that perpetually burns within us
for an infinite and perfect good.

Simone Weil

Real, Believe, Past

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Necessity is God's veil.

Simone Weil

Veils

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.104, Psychology Press

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When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time.

Simone Weil

Pain, Mean, Space

"Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)".

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The highest ecstasy is the attention at its fullest.

Simone Weil

Attention, Awareness, Ecstasy

Simone Weil (2013). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.515, Routledge

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Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.

Simone Weil

Inspirational, Inspiring, Real

Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.25, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

Simone Weil

Nursing, Compassion, Listening

Simone Weil (1973). “Waiting for God: Translated by Emma Craufurd ; With an Introd. by Leslie A. Fiedler”

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When a man's life is destroyed or damaged by some wound or privation of soul or body, which is due to other men's actions or negligence, it is not only his sensibility that suffers but also his aspiration toward the good. Therefore there has been sacrilege towards that which is sacred in him.

Simone Weil

Men, Soul, Suffering

Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.221, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Contradiction is the lever of transcendence.

Simone Weil

Levers, Contradiction, Transcendence

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You could not be born at a better period than the present, when we have lost everything.

Simone Weil

Lost Everything, Lost, Born

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.177, Psychology Press

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In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.

Simone Weil

Grief, Struggle, Serenity

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I can, therefore I am.

Simone Weil

Inspirational, Motivational, Encouraging

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It is not through the way in which someone speaks about God that I can see whether that person has passed through the crucible of Divine Love, but through the way the person speaks to me about things here on earth.

Simone Weil

Crucible, Earth, Way

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The virtue of hope is an orientation of the soul towards a transformation after which it will be wholly and exclusively love.

Simone Weil

Soul, Transformation, Virtue

Simone Weil (2014). “Letter to a Priest”, p.37, Routledge

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It seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.

Simone Weil

Fall, Thinking, Doe

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

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For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation.

Simone Weil

Friendship, Two, Near And Far

Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.42, Routledge

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Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.

Simone Weil

Powerful, Light, Years

Simone Weil (2009). “Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)”, p.33, Routledge

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If there were no affliction in this world we might think we were in paradise.

Simone Weil

Thinking, World, Affliction

Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.81, Psychology Press

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The world is God's language to us.

Simone Weil

God, World, Language

Simone Weil, Arthur Wills (1956). “The Notebooks of Simone Weil”, p.480, Psychology Press

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To us, men of the West, a very strange thing happened at the turn of the century; without noticing it, we lost science, or at least the thing that had been called by that name for the last four centuries. What we now have in place of it is something different, radically different, and we don't know what it is. Nobody knows what it is.

Simone Weil

Science, Men, Names

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When war is waged, it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it.

Simone Weil

Country, War, Giving

"The Power of Words (1937)". "Selected Essays 1934-1943". Book y Simone Weil, translated by Richard Rees, p. 224, 1957.

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The Hebrews took for their idol, not something made of metal or wood, but a race, a nation, something just as earthly. Their religion is essentially inseparable from such idolatry, because of the notion of the 'chosen people'.

Simone Weil

Race, Idols, People

Simone Weil (2014). “Letter to a Priest”, p.6, Routledge

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Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.

Simone Weil

God, Wall, Communication

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

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The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is something.

Simone Weil

Powerful, Believe, Men

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

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We are like plants which have the one choice of being in or out of the light.

Simone Weil

Light, Choices, Plant

"Simone Weil".

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

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