Simone Weil quotes

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace.

It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.

A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.

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.

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.

We can only know 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.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.

Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.

Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it.

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.

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

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

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

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

Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.

An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.

The future is made of the same stuff as the present.

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

I can, therefore I am.

The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace.

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.

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.