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Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

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
Human
Symbol
Humans
Efforts
Symbols
Destruction
Effort
Noblest
Artist
Construct
Art
Refrain
Two
Constructs

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Man alone can enslave man.
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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.
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There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.
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We possess nothing in the world - a mere chance can strip us of everything - except the power to say 'I.
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The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.
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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.
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Armies under the control of ... a sovereign State cannot bring freedom to anyone.
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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.
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Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.
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Modern life is given over to immoderation. Immoderation invades everything: actions and thought, public and private life.
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Compassion directed to oneself is humility.
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Why is it that reality, when set down untransposed in a book, sounds false?
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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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The development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies.
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One does not play Bach without having done scales. But neither does one play a scale merely for the sake of the scale.
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School children and students who love God should never say: For my part I like mathematics I like French I like Greek. They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.
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In this world we live in a mixture of time and eternity. Hell would be pure time.
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The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.
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Imaginary evil is romantic and varied real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
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You could not be born at a better period than the present, when we have lost everything.
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