Quotations From SIMONE WEIL

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• 1.

  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.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. repr. In Simone Weil: An Anthology, ed. Sian Miles, trans. by Mary McCarthy (1986). "The Iliad or the Poem of Force," Cahiers du Sud (Marseilles, Dec. 1940/Jan. 1941).
  
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• 2.

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

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies," Waiting on God (1950). Also see Weil's comment under "sympathy."
  
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• 3.

  It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. "The Great Beast: Conclusion," (written 1939-1940), published in Selected Essays, ed. Richard Rees (1962).
• 4.

  There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the laws and to an oath, and not from baseness of soul.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. "The Great Beast," pt. 3, Selected Essays, ed. Richard Rees (1962).
  
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• 5.

  Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. Letter, March 30, 1936. Seventy Letters (1965).
• 6.

  In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. Draft of letter to André Weil, 1940. Seventy Letters, pt. 2, no. 39 (1965).
• 7.

  A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. repr. In Selected Essays, ed. Richard Rees (1962). "The Power of Words," Nouveaux Cahiers (April 1 and 15, 1937).
  
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• 8.

  Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. "The New York Notebook," 1942, First and Last Notebooks, ed. Richard Rees (1970).
• 9.

  Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. Published in First and Last Notebooks, ed. Richard Rees (1970). The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939).
  
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• 10.

  The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil.

  Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, mystic. "East and West," (written 1943), first published in Selected Essays, ed. Richard Rees (1962).