"Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison"
About this Quote
Weil drops a match into the modern faith that history bends toward better. The line is built like a trap: destination, origin, progress. Each word belongs to the secular religion of improvement - politics, industry, even self-help - and she flips the altar. If nothing can end anywhere but where it began, then the grand narrative of “moving forward” is not just naive; it’s spiritually and morally dangerous.
Her intent isn’t to deny change. It’s to deny the moral halo we hang on change. “Progress” becomes poison because it sedates conscience: it lets societies justify present cruelties as temporary costs on the way to a brighter future. In Weil’s world, that logic isn’t neutral; it’s a temptation, the same mental move that turns people into raw material for plans. The sentence also carries her theological gravity: origin isn’t a starting line we outgrow but a source we’re accountable to - God, the Good, the real. Destination as “return” suggests attention and obligation, not innovation and conquest.
Context matters. Weil wrote under the shadow of mechanized war, ideological mass movements, and the prestige of technocratic solutions. In the 1930s and early 40s, “progress” wasn’t a TED Talk mantra; it was the self-justifying rhetoric of regimes, factories, and revolutions, each claiming history on their side. Her cynicism is precise: once you believe the future automatically redeems the present, you’ve already surrendered the present to whatever power promises the fastest route.
Her intent isn’t to deny change. It’s to deny the moral halo we hang on change. “Progress” becomes poison because it sedates conscience: it lets societies justify present cruelties as temporary costs on the way to a brighter future. In Weil’s world, that logic isn’t neutral; it’s a temptation, the same mental move that turns people into raw material for plans. The sentence also carries her theological gravity: origin isn’t a starting line we outgrow but a source we’re accountable to - God, the Good, the real. Destination as “return” suggests attention and obligation, not innovation and conquest.
Context matters. Weil wrote under the shadow of mechanized war, ideological mass movements, and the prestige of technocratic solutions. In the 1930s and early 40s, “progress” wasn’t a TED Talk mantra; it was the self-justifying rhetoric of regimes, factories, and revolutions, each claiming history on their side. Her cynicism is precise: once you believe the future automatically redeems the present, you’ve already surrendered the present to whatever power promises the fastest route.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
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