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School children and students who love God should never say: "For my part I like mathematics"; "I like French"; "I like Greek." They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.

— Simone Weil Waiting on God (1950)

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More quotes by Simone Weil

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

The most important part of education — to teach the meaning of to know (in the scientific sense).

Waiting on God (1950)

Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity.

Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)

An imaginary perfection is automatically at the same level as I who imagine it — neither higher nor lower.

Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)

Men of the most brilliant intelligence can be born, live and die in error and falsehood.

Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)

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When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside.

Plato

To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.

Claude Debussy Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933)

"O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."

John F. Kennedy

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Simone Weil (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.