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Purity is the ability to contemplate defilement.

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
Defilement
Contemplate
Contemplating
Purity
Ability

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If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
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Algebra and money are essentially levelers the first intellectually, the second effectively.
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The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded upon the spirituality of work.
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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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We only possess what we renounce what we do not renounce escapes from us.
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The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is something.
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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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The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible.
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Capitalism has brought about the emancipation of collective humanity with respect to nature. But this collective humanity has itself taken on with respect to the individual the oppressive function formerly exercised by nature.
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Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity.
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One might lay down as a postulate: All conceptions of God which are incompatible with a movement of pure charity are false. All other conceptions of him, in varying degree, are true.
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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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Just as the power of the sun is the only force in the natural universe that causes a plant to grow against gravity, so the grace of God is the only force in the spiritual universe that causes a person to grow against the gravity of their own ego.
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Only an indirect method is effective. We do nothing if we have not first drawn back.
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The difference between more or less intelligent men is like the difference between criminals condemned to life imprisonment in smaller or larger cells. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
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Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.
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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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