Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk
Simone Weil Philosopher
Gender: Female
Citizenship: France
Born: Feb 3, 1909
Died: Aug 24, 1943
Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and political activist.
Weil's life was marked by an exceptional compassion for the suffering of others; at the age of six, for instance, she refused to eat sugar after she heard that soldiers fighting in World War I had to go without. She died from tuberculosis during World War II, possibly exacerbated by malnutrition after refusing to eat more than the minimal rations that she believed were available to soldiers at the time.
After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks due to poor health and to devote herself to political activism, work that would see her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War known as the Durruti Column, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in auto factories, so she could better understand the working class.
Taking a path that was unusual among twentieth-century left-leaning intellectuals, she became more religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed.
The future is made of the same stuff as the present.
future
Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.
imagination & life
The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
intelligence
Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.
intelligence
A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.
God & science
To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile.
power
A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.
dreams
To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.
art & friendship
The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know.
teacher
Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.
art
In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
power
The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.
truth
Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.
beauty
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.
great
There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.
society
The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.
intelligence
The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded on the spirituality of work.
work
Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.
knowledge
A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.
war
What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.
war