Simone Weil

Simone Weil
Simone Weil; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and political activist...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth3 February 1909
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
education real attention
The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies.
life war attention-and-love
If you say to someone who has ears to hear: "What you are doing to me is not just," you may touch and awaken at its source the spirit of attention and love. But it is not the same with words like, "I have the right..." or "you have no right to..." They evoke a latent war and awaken the spirit of contention.
beautiful real attention
The poet produces the beautiful by fixing his attention on something real.
intellectual attention adherence
Intellectual adherence is never owed to anything whatsoever, for it is never in any degree a voluntary thing. Attention alone is voluntary. It alone forms the subject of an obligation.
trying attention faults
We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.
attention awareness ecstasy
The highest ecstasy is the attention at its fullest.
prayer attention
Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
teamwork taken sorrow
With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed.
men giving debt
Men owe us what they imagine they will give us. We must forgive them this debt.
pride men intelligent
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
felt power
Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty.
culture instrument teachers
Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers.
peace war wheat
Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat.
truth dwelling long
The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.