Quotes by Simone Weil

A hateful act is the transference to others of the degradation we bear in ourselves.

Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

Humility is attentive patience.

The future is made of the same stuff as the present.

Today Relative to Yesterday or Tomorrow The future is made of the same stuff as the present.

Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.

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.

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.

Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.

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

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.

Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself without grace.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.

Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it.

It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.

Every perfect life is a parable invented by God.

It is only the impossible that is possible for God. He has given over the possible to the mechanics of matter and the autonomy of his creatures.