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When literature becomes deliberately indifferent to the opposition of good and evil it betrays its function and forfeits all claim to excellence.

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
Claims
Betrays
Function
Forfeit
Becomes
Deliberately
Literature
Betray
Evil
Indifferent
Good
Claim
Opposition
Excellence
Forfeits

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Humility is attentive patience.
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Attachment is a manufacturer of illusion and whoever wants reality ought to be detached.
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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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We possess nothing in the world - a mere chance can strip us of everything - except the power to say 'I.
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Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses.
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Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
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Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity.
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The notion of obligations comes before that of rights, which is subordinate and relative to the former. A right is not effectual by itself, but only in relation to the obligation to which it corresponds.
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The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.
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The demonstrable correlation of opposites is an image of the transcendental correlation of contradictories.
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If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
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I only read what I am hungry for at the moment when I have an appetite for it, and then I do not read, I eat.
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One should identify oneself with the universe itself. Everything that is less than the universe is subjected to suffering.
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Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.
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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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Men owe us what we imagine they will give us. We must forgive them this debt.
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It is much easier to imagine ourselves in the place of God the Creator than in the place of Christ crucified.
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We are like plants which have the one choice of being in or out of the light.
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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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