"Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison"

Simone Weil’s statement presents a profound skepticism toward the conventional notion of progress and the linear directionality often ascribed to history, culture, and individual development. The assertion that nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin suggests the inevitability of return, the cyclical completeness inherent within every movement, action, or existence. For Weil, the idea of departing from one’s foundation in order to realize something altogether new, something fundamentally beyond the original seed of being, is not only illusory but a dangerous misunderstanding.

This view challenges the dominant Enlightenment narrative that sees progress as inherently good, as a march toward ever-greater heights, improvements, and achievements. Weil characterizes this idea as poison, implying that belief in relentless upward motion divorces us from our deepest truths. By framing progress as poison, she critiques the arrogance in the assumption of limitless human capability and advancement, exposing the costs of sacrificing roots, heritage, memory, or spiritual essence. There is an implicit warning here about abandoning our essential natures in pursuit of imagined futures, whether technological, social, or personal. When we cut ourselves off from where we come from, the source, tradition, or founding principles, we lose the coherence and unity necessary for genuine fulfillment or wisdom.

Weil’s concept resonates on both individual and collective levels. Personally, striving to transcend or deny one’s beginnings may result in alienation and fragmentation. Societally, the obsession with progress can produce forms of self-destruction or moral decay, as seen in the loss of communal values, disregard for limits, and the hubris of chasing utopias. Instead, she gestures toward a vision of life and ethics rooted in humility, reverence for origins, and the acceptance of cyclical rhythms: a return to source as the only true destination. In this perspective, meaning emerges not from endless innovation, but from deep fidelity to what grounds and constitutes us from the start.