169 quotes
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.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The variety of constraints pressing upon man give rise to the illusion of several distinct species that cannot communicate.
Capitalism has brought about the emancipation of collective humanity with respect to nature. But this collective humanity has itself taken on with respect to the individual the oppressive function formerly exercised by nature.
Gravity and Grace (1947)
It is only the impossible that is possible for God. He has given over the possible to the mechanics of matter and the autonomy of his creatures.
If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
Love is not consolation, it is light.
Simone Weil (1954)
Besides, it is written that the tree shall be known by its fruits. The Church has borne too many evil fruits for there not to have been some mistake at the beginning.
Letter to a Priest (1951)
Humility consists of knowing that in this world the whole soul, not only what we term the ego in its totality, but also the supernatural part of the soul, which is God present in it, is subject to time and to the vicissitudes of change.
Waiting on God (1950)
Our patriotism comes straight from the Romans. … It is a pagan virtue.
God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
The human soul has need of consented obedience and of liberty.
Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)
In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying them all on the same plane, without any discrimination of value, as though good and evil were external to them, as though the effort toward the good could be absent at any moment from the thought of any man.
On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God (1968)
Machines do not run in order to enable men to live, but we resign ourselves to feeding men in order that they may serve the machines.
Oppression and Liberty (1955)
The needs of the soul can for the most part be listed in pairs of opposites which balance and complete one another.
Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)
Might is that which makes a thing of anybody who comes under its sway. When exercised to the full, it makes a thing of man in the most literal sense, for it makes him a corpse.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
In order to obey God, one must receive his commands. How did it happen that I received them in adolescence, while I was professing atheism? To believe that the desire for good is always fulfilled — that is faith, and whoever has it is not an atheist.
Last Notebook (1942)
The Great Beast is the only object of idolatry, the only ersatz of God, the only imitation of something which is infinitely far from me and which is I myself.
Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)
We can know only 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 : An Anthology (1986)
This reintegration with the good is what punishment is. Every man who is innocent, or who has finally expiated guilt, needs to be recognized as honourable to the same extent as anyone else.
Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)