Simone Weil
Simone Weil
Simone Weil; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and political activist...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth3 February 1909
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
science ideas numbers
One could count on one's fingers the number of scientists throughout the world with a general idea of the history and development of their particular science: there is none who is really competent as regards sciences other than his own. As science forms an indivisible whole, one may say that there are no longer, strictly speaking, scientists, but only drudges doing scientific work ...
two light force
Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.
filling-up law space
All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through which grace might pass.
destiny ideas progress
Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.
doors world way
The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.
men giving debt
Men owe us what they imagine they will give us. We must forgive them this debt.
christian civilization aggravation
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
crush truth men
Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.
rewards energy degradation
Every kind of reward constitutes a degradation of energy.
punishment soul needs
Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.
power ends understood
Power ... is the supreme end for all those who have not understood.
spiritual lying greatness
There are only two sorts of greatness: true greatness, which is of a spiritual order, and the old, old lie of world conquest. Conquest is an ersatz greatness.
soul violence eternity
Time's violence rends the soul, by the rent eternity enters.
education children creating
Education-whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people-consists in creating motives.