Home / Authors / Simone Weil

Simone Weil

Simone Weil Quotes

Philosopher

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, social activist, and writer. Born on February 3, 1909, and died on August 24, 1943, Weil is known for her profound philosophical thinking and her passionate commitment to social justice. Her works have had a significant impact on later philosophers and social thinkers.

Filter quotes by topic

All Humans Men Ifs Soul World Attention Knows Suffering Thinking Doe Should Evil Order Real States Form Giving Human Beings Needs People

Famous Simone Weil Quotes

“Evil inhabits the soul of a criminal without being felt there. It is felt in the heart of the man who is afflicted and innocent.”

Book:Waiting for God

Source: Waiting for God

“There is something in our soul that loathes true attention much more violently than flesh loathes fatigue. That something is much closer to evil than flesh is. That is why, every time we truly give our attention, we destroy some evil in ourselves. If one pays attention with this intention, fifteen minutes of attention is worth a lot of good works.”

Evil Attention Good

Author:Simone Weil

“A society like the Church, which claims to be Divine is perhaps more dangerous on account of the ersatz good which it contains then on account of the evil which sullies it. Something of the social labelled divine: an intoxicating mixture which carries with it every sort of license. Devil disguised.”

Evil Social Church Dangerous Divine Devil Accounts Claims Carrie License Mixtures

Book:Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying them all on the same plane, without any discrimination of value, as though good and evil were external to them, as though the effort toward the good could be absent at any moment from the thought of any man.”

Men Way Soul States Moments Values Evil Literature Effort Psychology Century Discrimination Psychological Planes Good And Evil Twentieth Century Absent Describing

Author:Simone Weil

“There is a certain kind of morality which is even more alien to good and evil than amorality is.”

Kind Certain Evil Morality Aliens Good And Evil Amorality

Author:Simone Weil

“When literature becomes deliberately indifferent to the opposition of good and evil it betrays its function and forfeits all claim to excellence.”

Evil Literature Function Claims Excellence Opposition Good And Evil Betray Indifferent Forfeit

Book:The Simone Weil Reader

Source: The Simone Weil Reader

“If someone does me injury I must desire that this injury shall not degrade me. I must desire this out of love for him who inflicts it, in order that he may not really have done evil.”

Ifs May Doe Done Desire Order Evil Injury Degrade

Book:Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“In reality nothing is so beautiful as the good, nothing is so monotonous and boring as evil.”

Reality Beautiful Evil Boring Monotonous

Author:Simone Weil

“Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.”

Book:First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge

Source: First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge

“Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.”

Pain Evil Mystery Roots

Book:First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge

Source: First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge

“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”

Real Reality Happiness Evil Boring Imaginary Marvelous Barren Gloomy Monotonous

Book:Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“To claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good-—that it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.”

Ideas Lying Evil Claims Property Sincerity Adultery Theft Respectability

Author:Simone Weil

“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.”

Evil Politics Felt Duty Tyranny Tyrants Good Against Evil

Book:Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both. For they are linked together; sin makes us suffer and suffering makes us evil, and this indissoluble complex of suffering and sin is the evil in which we are submerged against our will, and to our horror.”

Together Suffering Evil Sin Common Horror Complexes Linked Submerged

Book:Simone Weil

Source: Simone Weil

“At the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done”

Humans Heart Done Evil Human Beings Crime Goes On Goodness Bottom Committed Teeth Expecting Tombs Infancy

Book:Letter to a Priest

Source: Letter to a Priest

“The human soul has need of security and also of risk. The fear of violence or of hunger or of any other extreme evil is a sickness of the soul. The boredom produced by a complete absence of risk is also a sickness of the soul.”

Needs Humans Soul Evil Violence Risk Security Hunger Extremes Absence Boredom Sickness Human Soul

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

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

“Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.”

Evil Hell Infinity License Monotonous

Book:The Simone Weil Reader

Source: The Simone Weil Reader

About the Author

Born: February 3, 1909
Died: August 24, 1943
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 426

Related Topics

Humans Men Ifs Soul World Attention Knows Suffering Thinking Doe Should Evil Order Real States Form Giving Human Beings Needs People

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Gravity and GraceRelated source material

Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral WritingsRelated source material

Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals)Related source material

First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural KnowledgeRelated source material

The Notebooks of Simone WeilRelated source material

The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards MankindRelated source material

Letter to a PriestRelated source material

The Simone Weil ReaderRelated source material

Oppression and LibertyRelated source material

Waiting for GodRelated source material

Similar Authors

Leo TolstoyBrowse related quotes
Friedrich NietzscheBrowse related quotes
Blaise PascalBrowse related quotes
C. S. LewisBrowse related quotes
Bertrand RussellBrowse related quotes
Thomas CarlyleBrowse related quotes
PlatoBrowse related quotes
Ralph Waldo EmersonBrowse related quotes
Gilbert K. ChestertonBrowse related quotes
Rudolf SteinerBrowse related quotes