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SIMONE WEIL QUOTES

In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention. If we could be attentive to the same degree in the presence of a human being.

SIMONE WEIL, Gravity and Grace

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime--namely, repressive justice.

SIMONE WEIL, "Human Personally"

In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.

SIMONE WEIL, Gravity and Grace

It would seem that man was born a slave, and that slavery is his natural condition. At the same time nothing on earth can stop man from feeling himself born for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature.

SIMONE WEIL, Oppression and Liberty

If we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire.

SIMONE WEIL, Gravity and Grace

It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.

SIMONE WEIL, "The Great Beast: Conclusion", Selected Essays

The only hope of socialism resides in those who have already brought about in themselves, as far as is possible in the society of today, that union between manual and intellectual labor which characterizes the society we are aiming at.

SIMONE WEIL, Oppression and Liberty

The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence. There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought.

SIMONE WEIL, "The Power of Words", Selected Essays

The soul is the human being considered as having a value in itself.

SIMONE WEIL, Gravity and Grace

He who does not realize to what extent shifting fortune and necessity hold in subjection every human spirit, cannot regard as fellow-creatures nor love as he loves himself those whom chance separated from him by an abyss. The variety of constraints pressing upon man give rise to the illusion of several distinct species that cannot communicate. Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.

SIMONE WEIL, "The Iliad or The Poem of Force"

There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.

SIMONE WEIL, Gravity and Grace


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