169 quotes
Words like virtue, nobility, honor, honesty, generosity, have become almost impossible to use or else they have acquired bastard meanings; language is no longer equipped for legitimately praising a man’s character.
On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God (1968)
The eulogies of my intelligence are positively intended to evade the question "Is what she says true?"
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The simultaneous existence of opposite virtues in the soul — like pincers to catch hold of God.
Gravity and Grace (1947)
The real sin of idolatry is always committed on behalf of something similar to the State.
Prelude to Politics (1943)
Alexander is to a peasant proprietor what Don Juan is to a happily married husband.
Gravity and Grace (1947)
What man needs is silence and warmth; what he is given is an icy pandemonium.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.
The New Christianity (1967)
Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification.
It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.
Gravity and Grace (1947)
The essential characteristic of the first half of the twentieth century is the growing weakness, and almost the disappearance, of the idea of value.
On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God (1968)
One of the most exquisite pleasures of human love — to serve the loved one without his knowing it — is only possible, as regards the love of God, through atheism.
Last Notebook (1942)
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
Gravity and Grace (1947)
The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The soul was not made to dwell in a thing; and when forced to it, there is no part of that soul but suffers violence.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
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 : An Anthology (1986)
Things of the senses are real if considered as perceptible things, but unreal if considered as goods.
Gravity and Grace (1972)
If we love God while thinking that he does not exist, he will manifest his existence.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
Every perfect life is a parable invented by God.
From modern thought to ancient wisdom the path would be short and direct, if one cared to take it.
The Need for Roots (1949)