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Simone Weil

Simone Weil Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Simone Weil Quotes

“Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.”

NeedsHumansHuman BeingsAttentionPrinciplesEqualDegreesInstitutionsEqualityDuesRecognitionMannersDisabilityEquality Of PeopleEquality For AllHuman Equality
Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“Whenever a human being, through the commission of a crime, has become exiled from good, he needs to be reintegrated with it through suffering. The suffering should be inflicted with the aim of bringing the soul to recognize freely some day that its infliction was just.”

NeedsShouldHumansSoulSufferingHuman BeingsCrimeAimPunishmentInfliction
Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“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.”

NeedsHumansSoulEvilViolenceRiskSecurityHungerExtremesAbsenceBoredomSicknessHuman Soul
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.”

MenNeedsYearsRealStatesSpiritualYouthBlockNervousPermanentExcitementRegimesStrainInabilityFreedom Of ThoughtStumblingStumbling BlocksTotalitarian Regimes
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.”

MenNeedsMayArtSoulActionValuesOpportunityLeftGivenAttentionSilenceModernStageColdIndustryHorrorLimitsEqualLaborMiseryEdgesPainfulWarmthFactoriesInterferencePossessingArt And ScienceEqual OpportunityDegradingIcyDesolatePandemonium
Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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