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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.

Simone Weil

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Simone Weil
Age: 34 †
Born: 1909
Born: February 3
Died: 1943
Died: August 24
Autobiographer
Diarist
French Resistance Fighter
Philosopher
Poet
Teacher
Trade Unionist
Translator
Writer
Paris
France
Simone Adolphine Weil
Liberty
Beauty
Wrong
Humanism
Values
Equality
Truth
Infinite
Without
Value
Men
Thinking
Grace

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The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.
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prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable towards God. The quality of the attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it.
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The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running.
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Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.
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The right to kill: supposing the life of X ... were linked with our own so that the two deaths had to be simultaneous, should we still wish him to die? If with our whole body and soul we desire life and if nevertheless without lying, we can reply 'yes'> then we have the right to kill.
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Electra weeping for the dead Orestes. If we love God while thinking that he does not exist, he will manifest his existence.
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Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right through to the soul. . . . When the feeling for beauty happens to be associated with the sight of some human being, the transference of love is made possible, at any rate in an illusory manner. But it is all the beauty of the world, it is universal beauty, for which we yearn.
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The Our Father contains all possible petitions we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it. It is to prayer what Christ is to humanity.
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If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate.
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Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.
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The beauty of the world is Christ's tender smile for us coming through matter.
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The need of truth is more sacred than any other need.
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In reality nothing is so beautiful as the good, nothing is so monotonous and boring as evil.
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Do not allow yourself to be imprisoned by any affection. Keep your solitude. The day, if it ever comes, when you are given true affection, there will be no opposition between interior solitude and friendship, quite the reverse. It is even by this infallible sigh that you will recognize it.
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There is only one fault, only one: our inability to feed upon light.
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There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unless detachment is present too.
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If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
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We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them.
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At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.
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To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself.
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