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
real history imagination
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.
real imagination suffering
Christ himself came down and took possession of me. . . I had never foreseen the possibility of that, of a real contact, person to person, here below, between a human being and God. . . in this sudden possession of me by Christ, neither my sense nor my imagination had any part: I only felt in the midst of my suffering the presence of a love.
imagination suffering facts
We have to endure the discordance between imagination and fact. It is better to say, “I am suffering,” than to say, “This landscape is ugly.
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.
innocence ifs
What hope is there for innocence if it is not recognized?
past entering eternity
Death. An instantaneous state, without past or future. Indispensable for entering eternity.
loyalty spring law
There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the laws and to an oath, and not from baseness of soul.
art wine fabrication
Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.