The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities. Simone Weil More Quotes by Simone Weil More Quotes From Simone Weil The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence. Simone Weil intellectual real civilization Nothing is worse than extreme affliction which destroys the "I" from the outside, because after that we can no longer destroy it ourselves. Simone Weil affliction wisdom fun Fortunately the sky is beautiful everywhere. Simone Weil sky beautiful 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. Simone Weil wall communication god Do not allow yourself to be imprisoned by any affection. Keep your solitude. The day, if it ever comes, when you are given true affection, there will be no opposition between interior solitude and friendship, quite the reverse. It is even by this infallible sigh that you will recognize it. Simone Weil affection single solitude The highest ecstasy is the attention at its fullest. Simone Weil ecstasy awareness attention The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it. Simone Weil greatness suffering lying 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 crush truth men Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude. Simone Weil gratitude joy thank-you An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God. Simone Weil atheism atheist love Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it. Simone Weil evil way Justice. To be ever ready to admit that another person is something quite different from what we read when he is there (or when we think about him). Or rather, to read in him that he is certainly something different, perhaps something completely different from what we read in him. Every being cries out silently to be read differently. Simone Weil different justice thinking 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 spiritual class men When war is waged, it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it. Simone Weil giving war country When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time. Simone Weil pain space mean Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life. Simone Weil carpe-diem real life Money destroys human roots wherever it is able to penetrate, by turning desire for gain into the sole motive. It easily manages to outweigh all other motives, because the effort it demands of the mind is so very much less. Nothing is so clear and so simple as a row of figures. Simone Weil effort simple roots We do injury to a child if we bring it up in a narrow Christianity, which prevents it from ever becoming capable of perceiving that there are treasures of purest gold to be found in non-Christian civilizations. Laical education does an even greater injury to children. It covers up those treasures, and those of Christianity as well. Simone Weil christian civilization children Every time that a man has, with a pure heart, called upon Osiris, Dionysus, Buddha, the Tao, etc., the Son of God has answered him by sending the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has acted upon his soul, not by inciting him to abandon his religious tradition, but by bestowing upon him light. It is, therefore, useless to send out missions to prevail upon the peoples of Asia, Africa or Oceania to enter the Church. Simone Weil religious heart son For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation. Simone Weil near-and-far friendship two
