“To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.”
Art
“In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.”
PowerAll Quotes by Simone Weil
“To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile.”
Power“In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.”
Power“If Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe.”
Future“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.”
Communication“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.”
Beauty“What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.”
War“The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.”
Intelligence“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.”
Hope“The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.”
Intelligence“The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.”
Truth“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.”
Truth“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.”
Equality“Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.”
Beauty“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.”
History“A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.”
God“Humility is attentive patience.”
Patience“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.”
Respect“Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty.”
Power“The future is made of the same stuff as the present.”
Future