Simone Weil Quotes on Knowledge
Simone Weil was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. This page collects quotes attributed to Simone Weil on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts : to construct and to refrain from destruction .”
The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees -
“I have sometimes told myself that if only there were a notice on church doors forbidding entry to anyone with an income above a certain figure, and a low one, I would be converted at once.”
Letter to Georges Bernanos (1938), in Seventy Letters , as translated by Richard Rees (Wipf and Stock: 1965), p. 105 -
“Letter to Georges Bernanos (1938), in Seventy Letters , as translated by Richard Rees (Wipf and Stock: 1965), p. 105”
I have sometimes told myself that if only there were a notice on church doors forbidding entry to anyone with an income above a certain figure, and a low one, I would be converted at once. -
“Original: L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité .”
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity . -
“Last letter to Father Joseph-Marie Perrin, from a refugee camp in Casablanca (26 May 1942), as translated in The Simone Weil Reader (1957) edited by George A. Panichas, p. 111”
Wrongly or rightly you think that I have a right to the name of Christian . I assure you that when in speaking of my childhood and youth I use the words vocation, obedience, spirit of poverty, purity, acceptance, love of one's neighbor, and other expressions of the same kind, I am giving them the exact signification they have for me now. Yet I was brought up by my parents and my brother in a compl -
“Concern for the symbol has completely disappeared from our science . And yet, if one were to give oneself the trouble, one could easily find, in certain parts at least of contemporary mathematics... symbols as clear, as beautiful, and as full of spiritual meaning as that of the circle and mediation. From modern thought to ancient wisdom the path would be short and direct, if one cared to take it.”
The Need for Roots (1949), p. 292