The 80 Best Quotes by Simone Weil

Simone Weil left us a legacy of knowledge as rich as it was diverse, since this French thinker did not focus on a single topic, but rather sought a way to link each thing into a whole. We can appreciate it with her work as a politician, activist, philosopher and mystic, which led her to be part of the French Resistance during World War II and as a member of the Durruti Column in the midst of the Spanish Civil War.

In this collection of the best quotes by Simone Weil You will find a sample of the way of understanding the life and politics of this philosopher.

The most inspiring Simone Weil quotes

He became an example for his companions as well as for other prominent figures such as Albert Camus or Simone de Beauvoir, who considered his spirit as an example of the concept of empathy. Thanks to his experiences and reflections, we bring you this compilation with phrases from Simone Weil that will make you think about your relationship with others.

1. Beauty is the harmony between chance and good.

Beauty is in the way we feel good about ourselves.

2. The miser, out of desire for his treasure, deprives himself of it.

If there is something sad, it is that the greedy do not enjoy what they have.

3. Absolutely pure and unmixed attention is prayer.

It’s the best way to show someone how much you care.

4. True definition of science: the study of the beauty of the world.

One of Simone Weil’s phrases in which she talks about the topic of knowledge; Here, she points out that science helps us better understand the world around us.

5. He who takes the sword will perish by the sword. But whoever does not take the sword (or lets it go) will perish on the cross.

All our actions have consequences, even when we decide to do nothing.

6. A hateful act is the transference to others of the degradation we have within.

Abuse is a reflection of how dissatisfied that person is with themselves.

7. All sins are attempts to fill voids.

If you don’t resolve what ails you, the void will never be filled.

8. The word revolution is a word for which people kill, for which they die, for which the popular masses are sent to death, but which has no content.

Explaining what being a rebel means to her.

9. Solutions are not easy to conceive.

Solutions come when we are able to take problems calmly.

10. Humility is attentive patience.

When we act in a good way, good things will happen to us.

11. Stars and flowering fruit trees. Complete permanence and extreme fragility alike provide the feeling of eternity.

Perfect things are made of vulnerabilities that remain over time.

12. Equality is a vital need of the human soul.

Having the same opportunities for growth as others is an objective that should prevail in society.

13. Why should I worry? Is not my business to think about me. My business is to think about God. It is God’s thing to think of me.

About the close relationship with their beliefs.

14. The task of revolutions consists essentially in the emancipation not of men but of the productive forces.

The true objective of every revolution.

15. All the pains that keep us away are lost pains.

Walking away is never the right step to overcome any conflict.

16. The extreme misfortune that befalls human beings does not create human misery; it simply reveals it.

Many of the crimes committed are the result of the same social imbalance.

17. That vulnerability of valuable things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence.

We know we are honest when we leave our vulnerabilities open.

18. Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny

When freedom of expression is restricted, that is when dictatorship begins.

19. Every work of art has an author, but when it is perfect, however, it is somewhat anonymous. Imitates the anonymity of divine art.

When a work is shared, it also belongs to those who enjoy it.

20. Loving a stranger as oneself entails as a counterpart: loving oneself as a stranger.

Treat others how you like to be treated.

21. Love is not comfort, it is light.

It is the way we can see our individual and collective value.

22. Capitalism has achieved the liberation of society in relation to nature. But that same society has quickly inherited, vis-à-vis the individual, the oppressive function that nature previously exercised.

Capitalism has helped thousands of places prosper, but those who abuse its power are the ones who turn it into modern slavery.

23. Once the experience of war makes visible the possibility of death that lies locked in each moment, our thoughts cannot travel from one day to the next without encountering the face of death.

No matter the reasons for war, it always brings death in its wake.

24. Creation: good broken into pieces and scattered through evil.

A way of explaining that free will is not God’s responsibility.

25. The necessary energy resides in me, since I have enough to live with.

The motivation to move forward must come from within us.

26. People are made in such a way that those who oppress do not feel anything; It is the oppressed person who feels what is happening.

When we do not feel injustices firsthand, we tend to ignore them.

27. Only the infinite limits the unlimited.

It is you who can stop you.

28. To love is to adore the distance with what you love.

Distance does not have to distance people, if there is love involved.

29. Don’t let yourself be imprisoned by any affection. Preserve your loneliness.

To love is to know how to respect people’s freedom, love will never be related to dependency.

30. The acquisition of knowledge in some cases brings us closer to the truth and in other cases it does not.

That is why we cannot stay with only what we know or hear, we must investigate more.

31. Desiring friendship is a big mistake. Friendship should be a free enjoyment, like those provided by art or life.

Friendship flows on its own when people connect.

32. The most important part of teaching is teaching what it is to know.

Sharing our knowledge multiplies what we know.

33. I can, therefore I am.

Believing is the strongest tool to achieve what we set out to do.

34. The intelligent man who takes pride in his intelligence is like the condemned man who takes pride in his large cell.

All arrogance comes from the need to avoid feeling less than.

35. Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; true evil is gloomy, monotonous, sterile, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, wonderful, intoxicating.

What happens when we let ourselves be carried away by fantasies.

36. Human existence is a thing so fragile and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.

Every step we take is a new risk.

37. If we immerse ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.

Our strength is in accepting what we can do.

38. Beauty seduces the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass into the soul.

True beauty is what positively impacts our lives.

39. The first purpose and, ultimately, the only purpose of every political party is its own growth, and that without limit.

Every political party must work for the improvement of society.

40. Any solution would involve, first of all, the suppression of political parties.

For Virginia, political parties prevent the improvement of society.

41. The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.

Ignoring the past will not make it erase, but rather wait for the moment to explode.

42. Do not try not to suffer or suffer less, but rather not to be upset by suffering.

Accept that pain is part of life and that it should not stop us from living.

43. The future is made of the same substance as the present.

That’s why it’s important to focus on what we do now.

44. Those who are unhappy do not need anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.

If you are not happy with yourself, you will seek constant attention, even if it is in the wrong way.

45. We should not wish for the disappearance of our problems but for the grace to transform them.

Every difficulty can become a source of inspiration.

46. ​​Everything that is valuable in me, without exception, comes from outside of me, not as a gift, but as a loan that must be renewed without pause.

Grateful for all the knowledge her experiences offer her.

47. The sea is no less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are shipwrecked by it.

A metaphor that explains that, despite difficulties, life is beautiful.

48. A beautiful woman looking at her image in the mirror may very well believe that the image is herself. An ugly woman knows that she is not ugly.

Reflections on the ‘meaning’ of beauty for different women.

49. Attachment is the great maker of illusions; reality can only be obtained by someone who is detached.

Dependency prevents people from growing on their own.

50. We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise.

No matter how beautiful a lie is, it is still something false and unstable.

51. True genius is nothing other than the supernatural virtue of humility in the domain of thought.

Geniuses know how to use the power of their mind.

52. Imagination and fiction make up more than three-quarters of our real lives.

That is why there are times when life itself surprises us more than any movie.

53. A truth is always the truth of something. The truth is the splendor of reality.

The truth cannot be hidden, at any moment it finds a way to come out.

54. If it ever happens that true affection is offered to you, that day there will be no opposition between inner loneliness and friendship, but rather the opposite. You will recognize it precisely by that infallible sign.

Solitude can be a space for self-connection.

55. It is a mistake to want to be understood before explaining oneself to oneself.

You can’t expect others to understand you if you don’t let yourself be known.

56. The downward movement, mirror of grace, is the essence of all music.

Music reflects the change of our feelings.

57. Unless we have taken the side of the oppressed person, to feel as they do, we cannot understand.

It is impossible to know someone’s situation perfectly if we have not experienced the same thing.

58. Evil is unlimited, but not infinite.

Nothing lasts forever, even in the darkness, a ray of light comes out.

59. Killing everything you love with your thoughts: the only way to die.

We die when joy does not reach us.

60. No matter how just the cause of the victor or the vanquished may be, the evil they cause, both defeat and victory, is inevitable.

In the case of wars, do the ends justify the means?

61. Among the peculiarities of the modern world we must not forget the impossibility of appreciating the relationship between effort and the effect of effort. Too many intermediaries.

It is better to try something than to be left wondering what would have happened if…

62. God’s love for us is not the reason we should love Him. God’s love for us is the reason we love ourselves.

You don’t need to follow a religion to have a special connection with God.

63. By force you can lower others or prevent them from being lowered; but only education can achieve high levels.

Education is the main pillar of all professional growth.

64. The beauty of the world, for example, is a sign of a God who is both personal and impersonal, and neither one nor the other.

Each person can have their own way of seeing God.

65. Money, machination, algebra. The three monsters of current civilization. Perfect analogy.

Although money is necessary to live, consumerism is a destruction of society.

66. The belief in the existence of other human beings as such is love.

Love is recognizing the value that we all have as a person.

67. Scientific socialism has become a dogma, exactly like all the results obtained by modern science.

Talking about the change in the notion of socialism.

68. It seems that we should be in the middle of the revolutionary period.

Every revolution arises when the people get tired of oppression.

69. By fighting against anxiety one never produces serenity; The fight against anxiety only produces new forms of anxiety.

Overcoming anguish is not based on escaping, but on accepting it.

70. Desire is a longing of thought towards the future.

If we want to improve, we must desire that necessary change.

71. The same amount of respect and attention is due to every human being, because respect has no degrees.

Everyone deserves respect just for being people.

72. Attention is the strangest and purest form of generosity.

When you offer your attention to someone, you show them what they mean in your life.

73. All advertising, all propaganda, so varied in its forms, that seeks to excite the desire for the superfluous, both in the countryside and among the workers, must be considered a crime.

A criticism of the use of empty promises with the most needy population in society.

74. Loving the truth means enduring life, and therefore accepting death. The truth is next to death.

Death, although difficult to accept, is part of life itself.

75. Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.

Things that amaze are marked in history.

76. For your right hand to ignore what the left hand is doing, it will have to be hidden from consciousness.

It is impossible to live with a clear conscience when you have something to pay.

77. Love is a source of energy.

Love fills us with encouragement to continue improving.

78. You have to do the possible to achieve the impossible.

The impossible is achieved by taking constant and firm steps.

79. The social order can only be a balance of forces.

For a society to be just, it needs to find a way to be balanced.

80. Only balance undoes force.

Strength is not measured by weight, but by retaining balance.