Simone Weil

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

— Simone Weil

“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”

— Simone Weil

“A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.”

— Simone Weil

“To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stressing their pettiness, because it is in their work that they have put the best of themselves.”

— Simone Weil

“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.”

— Simone Weil

“Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.”

— Simone Weil

“Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does.”

— Simone Weil

“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.”

— Simone Weil

“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.”

— Simone Weil

“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.”

— Simone Weil

“To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.”

— Simone Weil

“The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.”

— Simone Weil

“A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.”

— Simone Weil

“The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.”

— Simone Weil

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

— Simone Weil

“To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile.”

— Simone Weil

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

— Simone Weil

“The future is made of the same stuff as the present.”

— Simone Weil

“The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.”

— Simone Weil

“I can, therefore I am.”

— Simone Weil