Quotes from Simone Weil

La foi, c'est l'expérience que l'intelligence est éclairée par l'amour

Soon there will be distance between us. Let us love this distance that is wholly woven of friendship, for those who do not love each other cannot be separated.

A görögök nem ismerték a jog fogalmát. Még szavuk sem volt rá. Beérték az igazság nevével.

As for us, we are nailed in place, free only to direct our gaze, subject to necessity. A blind mechanism, which takes no account of the degree of spiritual perfection, continually tosses people and throws some of them at the foot of the Cross. It depends only on them to keep—or not—their eyes turned towards God through the shaking. It is not that the providence of God is absent. It is by His providence that God willed necessity as a blind mechanism.

La révolution satisfait en même temps ce besoin de l'aventure comme étant la chose la plus opposée à la nécessité, qui est encore une réaction contre le même malheur. Le goût des romans et des films policiers, la tendance à la criminalité qui apparaît chez les adolescents correspond aussi à ce besoin.

többnek képzeljük magunkat Istennél, mert Å' "csak" szeretni tud, mi gy?lölni is.

The plant exercises no control, no choice in the affair of its own growth. We, though, are like a plant that can choose whether or not to expose itself to the light.

All greek civilization is a search for bridges to relate human misery and divine perfection. Their art, which is incomparable, their poetry, their philosophy, the sciences which they invented (geometry, astronomy, mechanics, physics, biology) are nothing but bridges.

Affiiction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than light in the utter darkness of a cell. A kind of horror submerges the whole soul. During this absence there is nothing to love. What is terrible is that if, in this darkness where there is nothing to love, the soul ceases to love, God's absence becomes final.

The zeal of missionaries has not Christianized Africa, Asia and Oceana, but has brought these territories under the cold, cruel and destructive domination of the white race, which crushes everything. It would be strange that the word of Christ produced such effects if it had been properly understood.

Monotonie du mal : rien de nouveau, tout y est équivalent. Rien de réel, tout y est imaginaire. C'est à cause de cette monotonie que la quantité joue un si grand rôle. Beaucoup de femmes (don Juan) ou d'hommes (Célimène), etc. Condamné à la fausse infinité. C'est là l'enfer même.

The supernatural virtue of justice consists of behaving exactly as though there were equality when one is the stronger in an unequal relationship. Exactly, in every respect, including the slightest details of accent and attitude, for a detail may be enough to place the weaker party in the condition of matter, which on this occasion naturally belongs to him, just as the slightest shock causes water that has remained liquid below freezing point to solidify.

Perfection is impersonal. Our personality is the part of us which belongs to error and sin. The whole effort of the mystic has always been to become such that there is no part left in his soul to say 'I'. But the part of the soul which says 'We' is infinitely more dangerous still.

Obedience is the only pure motive, the only one which does not in the slightest degree seek a reward for the action, but leaves all care of reward to the Father who is in secret and who sees in secret.

Parmi les êtres humains, on ne reconnait pleinement l'existence que de ceux qu'on aime. La croyance à l'existence d'autres êtres humains comme tels est amour.

Nous n'avons pas à acquérir l'humilité. L'humilité est en nous. Seulement nous nous humilions devant de faux dieux.

When Christ said, 'Teach all nations and bring them the News (Gospel),' he ordained them to bring news, not a theology. Christ himself, having come, tells them to add this news to the religion of Israel.

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.

He who treats as equals those who are far below him in strength really makes them a gift of the quality of human beings, of which fate had deprived them. As far as it is possible for a creature, he reproduces the original generosity of the Creator with regard to them. This is the most Christian of virtues.

We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. Man cannot discover them by his own powers, and if he sets out to seek for them he will find in their place counterfeits of which he will be unable to discern the falsity.

Méthode pour comprendre les images, les symboles. etc. Non pas essayer de les interpréter, mais les regarder jusqu'à ce que la lumière jaillisse.

Il y a dans l'âme comme une phagocytose ; tout ce qui est menacé par le temps secrète du mensonge pour ne pas mourir, et à proportion du danger de mort. C'est pourquoi il n'y a pas d'amour de la vérité sans un consentement sans réserve à la mort.

I must love being nothing. How horrible it would be if I were something! I must love my nothingness, love being a nothingness. I must love with that part of the soul which is on the other side of the curtain, for the part of the soul which is perceptible to consciousness cannot love nothingness. It has a horror of it. Though it may think it loves nothingness, what it really loves is something other than nothingness.

The irreducible character of suffering which makes it impossible for us not to have a horror of it at the moment when we are undergoing it is destined to bring the will to a standstill, just as absurdity brings the intelligence to a standstill, and absence love, so that man, having come to the end of his human faculties, may stretch out his arms, stop, look up and wait.