Quotes About Soul

Man requires, not rice or potatoes, but food; not wood or coal, but heating. In the same way, for the needs of the soul, we must recognize the different, but equivalent, sorts of satisfaction which cater for the same requirements.

L'amour charnel est une recherche de l'Incarnation. On veut aimer dans un être humain la beauté du monde, non pas la beauté du monde en général, mais cette beauté spécifique que le monde offre à chacun et qui correspond exactement à l'état de son corps et de son âme.

Evil inhabits the soul of a criminal without being felt there. It is felt in the heart of the man who is afflicted and innocent.

S'identifier à l'univers même. Tout ce qui est moindre que l'univers est soumis à la souffrance. J'ai beau mourir, l'univers continu. Cela ne me console pas si je suis autre que l'univers. Mais si l'univers est à mon âme comme un autre corps, ma mort cesse d'avoir pour moi plus d'importance que celle d'un inconnu. De même les souffrances.

Whoever, within his own soul and in human relations, escapes the dominion of force is loved but loved sorrowfully because of the threat of destruction that constantly hangs over him.

The right use of the exercise of the will is a condition of salvation, necessary without a doubt, but remote, inferior, very subordinated, purely negative. Muscular effort pulls up weeds, but only the sun and water can make wheat grow. The will cannot produce any good in the soul.

Yet what is impossible in logic becomes true in life, and the contradiction lodged within the soul tears it to shreds.

Friendship is a miracle by which a person consents to view from a certain distance, and without coming any nearer, the very being who is necessary to him as food. It requires the strength of soul that Eve did not have; and yet she had no need of the fruit. If she had been hungry at the moment she looked at the fruit, and if in spite of that she had remained looking at it indefinitely without taking one step toward it, she would have performed a miracle analogous to that of perfect friendship.

Truth lights up the soul in proportion to its purity, not in any sense to its quantity. It isn't the quantity of metal which matters, but the degree of alloy. In this respect, a little pure gold is worth a lot of pure gold. A little pure truth is worth as much as a lot of pure truth. Similarly, one perfect Greek statue contains as much beauty as two perfect Greek statues.

God alone is capable of loving God. We can only consent to give up our own feelings so as to allow free passage in our soul for this love. That is the meaning of denying oneself. We are created for this consent, and for this alone.

Such is the power of might. Its power to transform an into a thing double and it cuts both ways; it petrifies differently but equally the souls of those who suffer it, and of those who wield it.

Such is the power of might. Its power to transform man into a thing is double and it cuts both ways; it petrifies differently but equally the souls of those who suffer it, and of those who wield it.

Supplier un homme, c'est une tentative désespérée pour faire passer à force d'intensité son propre système de valeurs dans l'esprit d'un autre. Supplier Dieu, c'est le contraire : tentative pour faire passer les valeurs divines dans sa propre âme.

When pain and weariness reach the point of causing a sense of perpetuity to be born in the soul, through contemplating this perpetuity with acceptance and love, we are snatched away into eternity.

When a soul achieves a love that fills the whole universe equally, this love must become the chick with golden wings that pierces the egg of the world. After this it loves the universe not from the inside, but from the outside, from the place where our firstborn brother, the Wisdom of God, is seated.

There is a transcendent energy whose source is from heaven that flows into us as soon as we desire it. It is the true energy; it executes actions through the mediation of our souls and our bodies. We should ask for this food. The moment we ask for it and even by the fact that we ask, we know that God wants to give it to us.

The fall of the petals from fruit trees in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence—that is beautiful. Why? It projects the soul beyond time.

The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence. The fall of Troy. The fall of the petals from a fruit tree in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence— that is beautiful. Why? It projects the soul beyond time.

Le danger n'est pas que l'âme doute s'il y a ou non du pain, mais qu'elle se persuade par un mensonge qu'elle n'a pas faim. Elle ne peut se le persuader que par un mensonge, car la réalité de sa faim n'est pas une croyance, c'est une certitude.

The destruction of Troy. The fall of petals from fruit trees in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence—that is beautiful. Why? It projects the soul beyond time.

Zburzenie Troi. Opadaj?ce p?atki kwitn?cych drzew owocowych. Wiedzie?, ?e to, co najcenniejsze, nie jest zakorzenione w istnieniu. To pi?kne. Dlaczego? Przenosi dusz? poza czas.

But if the soul stops loving it falls, even in this life, into something which is almost equivalent to hell. — Simone Weil

The mysteries of the faith are not an object for the intelligence as the faculty which permits affirmation or denial. They are not of the order of the truth, but above it. The only part of the human soul capable of real contact with them is the faculty of supernatural love. Therefore, it alone is capable of adherence to them.

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.