To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life. – Simone Weil
Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. – Simone Weil
It is only the impossible that is possible for God. He has given over the possible to the mechanics of matter and the autonomy of his creatures. – Simone Weil
The only way into truth is through one’s own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation. – Simone Weil
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. – Simone Weil
The role of the intelligence – that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit. – Simone Weil
It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance. – Simone Weil
The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation. – Simone Weil
If Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe. – Simone Weil
The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded on the spirituality of work. – Simone Weil
I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her. – Simone Weil
Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission. – Simone Weil
Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers. – Simone Weil