Quotes by

Simone Weil

Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else. – Simone Weil

Purity is the power to contemplate defilement. – Simone Weil

Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure. – Simone Weil

We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise. – Simone Weil

Nothing is less instructive than a machine. – Simone Weil

When a mans life is destroyed or damaged by some wound or privation of soul or body, which is due to other mens actions or negligence, it is not only his sensibility that suffers but also his aspiration toward the good. Therefore there has been sacrilege towards that which is sacred in him. – Simone Weil

When once a certain class of people has been placed by the temporal and spiritual authorities outside the ranks of those whose life has value, then nothing comes more naturally to men than murder. – Simone Weil

A man whose mind feels that it is captive would prefer to blind himself to the fact. But if he hates falsehood, he will not do so; and in that case he will have to suffer a lot. He will beat his head against the wall until he faints. He will come to again – Simone Weil

The only way into truth is through ones own annihilation through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation. – Simone Weil

The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded on the spirituality of work. – Simone Weil

A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. – Simone Weil

What a country calls its vital… interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war. – Simone Weil

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it. – Simone Weil

The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know. – Simone Weil

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

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic. – Simone Weil

To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile. – Simone Weil

Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty. – Simone Weil

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

Humility is attentive patience. – Simone Weil