Quotes by Simone Weil

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

As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.

I can, therefore I am.

There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.

“Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.”

“We have to endure the discordance between imagination and fact. It is better to say, “I am suffering,” than to say, “This landscape is ugly.”

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