Simone Weil Biography

Occup.Philosopher
FromFrance
BornFebruary 3, 1909
DiedAugust 24, 1943
Aged34 years
Simone Weil was born upon February 3, 1909, in Paris, France, to a well-to-do Jewish household. Her papa, Bernard Weil, was an effective medical professional, and also her mommy, Selma, was a devoted homemaker. Weil and also her older sibling André, who later on ended up being an accomplished mathematician, were motivated from a young age to excel academically.

As a kid, Weil was recognized for her intelligence and also strong job principles. She attended the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV, where she created an interest in approach. At the age of 15, she enrolled in the École Normale Supérieure, an exclusive French establishment that produced intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre and also Simone de Beauvoir. In 1931, she graduated initially in her course as well as began working as a teacher.

Weil's compassion for the working class started during her university years when she entailed herself in labor union activities. Later, she took a year off from her teaching occupation to work in an auto manufacturing facility to experience the employee's life firsthand. She observed the problems of the workers and developed a deep feeling of solidarity with them.

Simone Weil was a complicated number as well as her political and also philosophical ideas frequently attracted controversy. She was originally associated with Marxist perfects, yet later became disillusioned with the activity. Weil moved towards anarchism and Christian mysticism, believing in social justice and also human self-respect as core philosophical concepts. These ideas educated her works, which include jobs such as "Oppression and also Liberty," "Gravity as well as Grace," and "The Need for Roots."

Throughout World War II, Weil took off Nazi-occupied France as well as relocated to England, where she benefited the Free French resistance movement. Her dedication to helping others reached working in the fields of education and learning as well as public health. It was during this duration that Simone Weil created most of her most important works.

Simone Weil's life was tragically shortened. She went into a mental hospital in 1943 due to health and wellness concerns as well as was at some point identified with lung tuberculosis. While in the mental hospital, she refused to eat greater than the weak distributions her compatriots in occupied France received in uniformity with their suffering. As a result, her health quickly decreased, which brought about her death on August 24, 1943, at the age of 34.

Throughout her brief life, Simone Weil continued to be a fiercely independent thinker and also a deeply understanding individual. Her work remains to motivate and challenge visitors with her unyielding commitment to social justice, human self-respect, and also unorthodox spiritual beliefs. She has left a tradition as one of the most prominent female theorists in the 20th century, and her ideas and also works remain to be examined and also appreciated by scholars and also thinkers all over the world.

Our collection contains 66 quotes who is written / told by Simone, under the main topic Motivational.

Related authors: Jean-Paul Sartre (Philosopher), Philo (Philosopher), Simone de Beauvoir (Writer), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete)

Simone Weil Famous Works:

66 Famous quotes by Simone Weil

Small: Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing it is the person crushed who fe
"Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand"
Small: A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless
"A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless"
Small: A mind enclosed in language is in prison
"A mind enclosed in language is in prison"
Small: A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves
"A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves"
Small: A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being dece
"A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines"
Small: Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the t
"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"
Small: To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stres
"To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stressing their pettiness, because it is in their work that they have put the best of themselves"
Small: For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are f
"For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation"
Small: Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty
"Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty"
Small: Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge
"Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge"
Small: Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy
"Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy"
Small: Every perfect life is a parable invented by God
"Every perfect life is a parable invented by God"
Small: Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle
"Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings"
Small: Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know t
"Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him"
Small: Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufact
"Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers"
Small: Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does
"Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does"
Small: Beauty always promises, but never gives anything
"Beauty always promises, but never gives anything"
Small: Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions reality can be attained only by someone who is detached
"Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached"
Small: As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill or at least they
"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"
Small: An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God
"An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God"
Small: All sins are attempts to fill voids
"All sins are attempts to fill voids"
Small: A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasa
"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"
Small: A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option
"A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war"
Small: What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that h
"What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war"
Small: It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order
"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"
Small: Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life
"Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life"
Small: The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more vir
"The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil"
Small: The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know
"The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know"
Small: With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow a
"With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed"
Small: We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image o
"We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him"
Small: Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs
"Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it"
Small: Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once
"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"
Small: There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the la
"There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the laws and to an oath, and not from baseness of soul"
Small: The future is made of the same stuff as the present
"The future is made of the same stuff as the present"
Small: In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity the struggle against anguish only produces ne
"In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish"
Small: It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a cha
"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"
Small: In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs
"In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs"
Small: We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads.
"We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads. We even lose consciousness of the situation, we just submit. Any re-awakening of thought is then painful"
Small: More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact tha
"More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic"
Small: Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims the second
"Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it"
Small: To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by
"To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life"
Small: To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to op
"To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny"
Small: To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile
"To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile"
Small: To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul
"To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul"
Small: To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself
"To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself"
Small: Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their a
"Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention"
Small: There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice
"There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice"
Small: There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unl
"There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unless detachment is present too"
Small: The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes
"The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes"
Small: The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but lest, by a lie, it should
"The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but lest, by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry"
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