169 quotes
In this so-called age of technicians, the only battles we know how to fight are battles against windmills.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
It is this idolatry of self which they have bequeathed to us in the form of patriotism.
Prelude to Politics (1943)
The collective is the object of all idolatry, this it is which chains us to the earth.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The use of expressions like "to the extent that" is beyond our intellectual capacity.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
A modern factory reaches perhaps almost the limit of horror.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The state of conformity is an imitation of grace.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The prospects of revolution seem therefore quite restricted. For can a revolution avoid war? It is, however, on this feeble chance that we must stake everything or abandon all hope.
Reflections on War (1933)
It is because of my wretchedness that I am "I." It is on account of the wretchedness of the universe that, in a sense, God is "I" (that is to say a person).
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
If we want a love which will protect the soul from wounds we must love something other than God.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
Real genius is nothing else but the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.
The number 2 thought of by one man cannot be added to the number 2 thought of by another man so as to make up the number 4.
Oppression and Liberty (1958)
The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.
The soul is the human being considered as having a value in itself.
Gravity and Grace (1972)
Belief in the existence of other human beings as such is love.
Gravity and Grace (1972)
There is a certain kind of morality which is even more alien to good and evil than amorality is.
On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God (1968)
Atheism and incredulity constitute an equivalent of such a purification.
But a war of any scope will give rise to others as formidable.
Reflections on War (1933)
The reality of this world is necessity. The part of man which is in this world is the part which is in bondage to necessity and subject to the misery of need.
Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)
The full expression of personality depends upon its being inflated by social prestige; it is a social privilege.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)