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Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings

Book by Simone Weil · 14 quotes · Men, Needs, Soul

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Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings Quotes

“The necessity for power is obvious, because life cannot be lived without order; but the allocation of power is arbitrary because all men are alike, or very nearly. Yet power must not seem to be arbitrarily allocated, because it will not then be recognized as power. Therefore prestige, which is illusion, is of the very essence of power.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“Justice consists in seeing that no harm is done to men. Whenever a man cries inwardly: 'Why am I being hurt?' harm is being done to him. He is often mistaken when he tries to define the harm, and why and by whom it is being inflicted on him. But the cry itself is infallible.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world--and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish--she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”

IfsMenWorldShouldWellsMayLongDoeStillsCountryReasonEnoughWholeHateEnjoyLibertySourceLoversCitizensRemainsGenuineWhole WorldFranceLong Ago
Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“The difference between more or less intelligent men is like the difference between criminals condemned to life imprisonment in smaller or larger cells. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man's name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“The real stumbling-block of totalitarian regimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is men's inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement, except during a few years of their youth.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“A modern factory reaches perhaps almost the limit of horror. Everybody in it is constantly harassed and kept on edge by the interference of extraneous wills while the soul is left in cold desolate misery. What man needs is silence and warmth; what he is given is an icy pandemonium. Physical labor may be painful, but it is not degrading as such. It is not art; it is not science; it is something else, possessing an exactly equal value with art and science, for it provides an equal opportunity to reach the impersonal stage of attention.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“A man whose mind feels that it is captive would prefer to blind himself to the fact. But if he hates falsehood, he will not do so; and in that case he will have to suffer a lot. He will beat his head against the wall until he faints. He will come to again”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“When a man's life is destroyed or damaged by some wound or privation of soul or body, which is due to other men's actions or negligence, it is not only his sensibility that suffers but also his aspiration toward the good. Therefore there has been sacrilege towards that which is sacred in him.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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