Quotes from 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.

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

Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.

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.

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.

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

Expectant waiting is the foundation of the spiritual life.

One does not play Bach without having done scales. But neither does one play a scale merely for the sake of the scale.

A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.

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

The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have the capacity do not possess it.

Modern life is given over to immoderation. Immoderation invades everything: actions and thought, public and private life.

I can, therefore I am.

Art has no immediate future, because all art is collective and there is no more collective life.

We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise.

In this world we live in a mixture of time and eternity. Hell would be pure time.

Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy.

The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.

The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.

Time's violence rends the soul, by the rent eternity enters.

Time does us violence; it is the only violence.

The capacity to pay attention to an afflicted person is something very rare, very difficult; it is nearly a miracle. It is a miracle. Nearly all those who believe they have this capacity do not. Warmth, movements of the heart, and pity are not sufficient.

He who has not God in himself cannot feel His absence.