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The contradictions the mind comes up against, these are the only realities, the criterion of the real. There is no contradiction in what is imaginary. Contradiction is the test of necessity.

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
Test
Tests
Criterion
Comes
Contradictions
Reality
Criteria
Real
Realities
Mind
Imaginary
Contradiction
Necessity

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It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.
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The feeding of those that are hungry is a form of contemplation.
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It is impossible that the whole of truth should not be present at every time and every place, available for anyone who desires it.
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Christians ought to suspect that affliction is the very essence of creation. To be a created thing is not necessarily to be afflicted, but it is necessarily to be exposed to affliction. ... Affliction is the surest sign that God wishes to be loved by us it is the most precious evidence of His tenderness.
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The simultaneous existence of opposite virtues in the soul like pincers to catch hold of God.
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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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Sin is nothing else but the failure to recognize human wretchedness.
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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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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.
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Beauty is a fruit which we look at without trying to seize it.
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Academic work is one of those fields which contain a pearl so precious that it is worth while to sell all our possessions, keeping nothing for ourselves, in order to be able to acquire it.
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What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war. Petrol is more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict.
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Attachment is a manufacturer of illusion and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.
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We should do only those righteous actions which we cannot stop ourselves from doing.
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