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Simone Weil

Simone Weil Biography

Philosopher

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“Si des individus passionnés, enclins par la passion au crime et au mensonge, se composent de la même manière en un peuple véridique et juste, alors il est bon que le peuple soit souverain. Une constitution démocratique est bonne si d'abord elle fait en sorte que les vouloirs du peuple soient exécutés. Le véritable esprit de 1789 consiste à penser, non pas qu'une chose est juste parce que le peuple la veut, mais qu'à certaines conditions le vouloir du peuple a plus de chances qu'aucun autre vouloir d'être conforme à la justice.”

PassionCrimePeupleSouveraineté
Book:Note sur la suppression générale des partis politiques
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“At the very best, a mind enclosed in language is in prison. It is limited to the number of relations which words can make simultaneously present to it; and remains in ignorance of thoughts which involve the combination of a greater number. These thoughts are outside language, they are unformulable, although they are perfectly rigorous and clear and although every one of the relations they involve is capable of precise expression in words. So the mind moves in a closed space of partial truth, which may be larger or smaller, without ever being able so much as to glance at what is outside.”

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Author:Simone Weil
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“Every act should be considered from the point of view not of its object but of its impulsion. The question is not ‘What is the aim?’ It is ‘What is the origin?’ ‘I was naked, and ye clothed me.’ This gift is simply an indication of the state of those who acted in this way. They were in a state which made it impossible for them not to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked; they did not in any way do it for Christ, they could not help doing it because the compassion of Christ was in them. It was the same with Saint Nicholas who, when going across the Russian Steppes with Saint Cassian to meet God, could not help being late for the appointed time of meeting because he had to help a poor peasant to move his cart which had stuck in the mud. Good which is done in this way, almost in spite of ourselves, almost shamefacedly and apologetically, is pure. All absolutely pure goodness completely eludes the will. Goodness is transcendent. God is Goodness.”

GodReligionChristianityGraceGoodness
Book:Gravity and Grace
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“Ne te laisse mettre en prison par aucune affection. Préserve ta solitude. Le jour, s'il vient jamais, où une véritable affection te serait donnée, il n'y aurait pas d'opposition entre la solitude intérieure et l'amitié, au contraire. C'est même à ce signe infaillible que tu la reconnaîtras. Les autres affections doiventêtre disciplinées sévèrement.”

LoveInspirationalSelf LoveSolitudeSelf WorthSelf Discovery
Book:La Pesanteur et la Grâce
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“What I call the haven, as you know, is the Cross. If it cannot be given me to deserve one day to share the Cross of Christ, at least may I share that of the good thief. Of all the beings other than Christ of whom the Gospel tells us, the good thief is by far the one I most envy. To have been at the side of Christ and in the same state during the crucifixion seems to me a far more enviable privilege than to be at the right hand of his glory.”

ChristWorthCrossGood Thief
Book:Waiting for God
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“Education -- whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people, or even oneself -- consists in creating motives. To show what is beneficial, what is obligatory, what is good -- that is the task of education. Education concerns itself with the motives for effective action. For no action is ever carried out in the absence of motives capable of supplying the indispensable amount of energy for its execution.”

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Author:Simone Weil
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“The notion of obligations comes before that of rights, which is subordinate and relative to the former. A right is not effectual by itself, but only in relation to the obligation to which it corresponds, the effective exercise of a right springing not from the individual who possesses it, but from other men who consider themselves as being under a certain obligation towards him. Recognition of an obligation makes it effectual. An obligation which goes unrecognized by anybody loses none of the full force of its existence. A right which goes unrecognized by anybody is not worth very much. It makes nonsense to say that men have, on the one hand, rights, and on the other hand, obligations. Such words only express differences in point of view. The actual relationship between the two is as between object and subject. A man, considered in isolation, only has duties, amongst which are certain duties towards himself. A man left alone in the universe would have no rights whatever, but he would have obligations.”

RightsResponsibilitiesDutiesObligations
Book:The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind
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“Impersonality is only reached by the practice of a form of attention which is rare in itself and impossible except in solitude; and not only physical but mental solitude. This is never achieved by a man who thinks of himself as a member of a collectivity, as part of something which says ‘We’. Men as parts of a collectivity are debarred from even the lower forms of the impersonal. A group of human beings cannot even add two and two. Working out a sum takes place in a mind temporarily oblivious of the existence of any other minds. Although the personal and the impersonal are opposed, there is a way from the one to the other. But there is no way from the collective to the impersonal. A collectivity must dissolve into separate persons before the impersonal can be reached. This is the only sense in which the person has more of the sacred than the collectivity. The collectivity is not only alien to the sacred, but it deludes us with a false imitation of it.”

Impersonal
Book:Letter to a Priest
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“Las mismas palabras [por ejemplo, un hombre dice a su mujer, "te amo"] pueden ser triviales o extraordinarias según la forma en que se digan. Y esa forma depende de la profundidad de la región en el ser de un hombre de donde procedan, sin que la voluntad pueda hacer nada. Y, por un maravilloso acuerdo, alcanzan la misma región en quien las escucha. De tal modo, el que escucha puede discernir, si tiene alguna capacidad de discernimiento, cuál es el valor de las palabras.”

AmorPsicologíaFilosofíaPalabrasVoluntadRelaciones AmorosasDiscernimientoGraciaRelaciones Interpersonales
Book:Gravity and Grace
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“Nöyryys on samaa kuin tieto, ettei siinä mitä sanotaan "minäksi" ole lainkaan sellaista energiaa, jonka avulla pääsisimme kohoamaan. Kaikki mitä minussa on arvokasta, on poikkeuksetta peräisin muualta; eikä se ole lahjaa vaa lainaa, joka on alituisesti uudistettava. Kaikki mitä minussa itsessäni on, on poikkeuksetta arvotonta; ja jos anastan omakseni muualta saamiani lahjoja, nekin heti muuttuvat arvottomiksi.”

EnergiaTietoMinäMinäkuvaNöyryysPainovoimaArmoArvokkuusArvottomuusMinuus
Book:Gravity and Grace
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