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Ideas of Simone Weil, by Text

[French, 1909 - 1943, Born in Paris. Taught by Alain. Died at Ashford, Kent, in England.]

1933 Prospects: Proletarian Revolution?
p.15 p.15 23857 People in power always try to increase their power
p.16 p.16 23858 War is perpetuated by its continual preparations
p.19 p.19 23859 True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual
p.2 p.2 23856 Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression
p.21 p.21 23860 Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last
1934 Reflections on Liberty and Social Oppression
p.113 p.113 23870 Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd
p.113 p.113 23871 No central authority can initiate decentralisation
p.39 p.39 23861 Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable
p.57 p.57 23863 Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress
p.62 p.62 23864 Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power
p.65 p.64 23865 Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests
p.69 p.69 23866 In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power
p.73 p.73 23867 After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore
p.94 p.94 23868 The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery
p.97 p.97 23869 In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous
1934 The Power of Words
p.241 p.241 23827 Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters
p.244 p.244 23828 National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war
p.249 p.249 23829 National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order
1936 Fragments
p.131 p.131 23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous
1940 Friendship
p.288 p.288 23834 Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone
1940 The Iliad or the Poem of Force
p.183 p.183 23812 Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse
p.212 p.212 23813 Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice
1940 Letters
1936-03 p.34 23901 Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them
1937-04c p.87 23902 I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us
1940-03c p.125 23903 When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator
1941-01 p.129 23904 The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity
1941 Literature and Morals
p.146 p.146 23898 Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic
1941 On the Concept of Character
p.100 p.100 23896 We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support
p.98 p.98 23893 We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time
p.98 p.98 23894 The concept of character is at the centre of morality
p.99 p.99 23895 We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial
1941 Reflections on Value
p.30 p.30 23881 All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy
p.31 p.31 23883 Minds essentially and always strive towards value
p.31 p.31 23882 Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means
p.32 p.32 23884 Truth is a value of thought
p.33 p.33 23885 Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge
p.33 p.33 23886 Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous
1941 Philosophy
p.38 p.38 23887 Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others
p.42 p.42 23888 Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking
1941 Prerequisite to Dignity of Labour
p.268 p.268 23832 We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is
1941 The Scientific Image
p.169 p.169 23899 The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite
p.175 p.175 23900 Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together
1942 God in Plato
p.45 p.45 23889 Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style
p.89 p.89 23892 The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty
1942 The Work of a Free Person
p.134 p.134 23897 Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible
1943 Draft Statement of Human Obligations
p.221 p.221 23814 Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good
p.223 p.223 23815 We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground
p.225 p.225 23816 Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity
p.228 p.228 23817 We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities)
p.228 p.228 23819 Deliberate public lying should be punished
p.228 p.228 23818 We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority
p.229 p.229 23821 Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality
p.229 p.229 23822 We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative
p.229 p.229 23823 Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom
p.229 p.229 23820 People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful
p.230 p.230 23824 Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty
1943 Gravity and Grace (9 extracts)
p.140 p.140 23807 The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry
p.142 p.142 23808 There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil
p.143 p.142 23809 Our only social duty is to try to limit evil
p.146 p.146 23810 Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation
p.180 p.180 23811 If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery
p.233 p.233 23825 We seek truth only because it is good
p.234 p.234 23826 Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention
p.255 p.255 23831 The essence of power is illusory prestige
p.255 p.255 23830 A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity
p.278 p.278 23833 The good is a nothingness, and yet real
p.294 p.294 23765 The soul is the intrinsic value of a human
1943 Human Personality
p,70 p.70 23747 What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being
p.71 p.71 23748 The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil
p.78 p.78 23749 The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves
p.80 p.80 23750 It is not more money which the wretched members of society need
p.81 p.81 23751 Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force
p.83 p.83 23752 Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity
p.84 p.84 23753 People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged
p.86 p.86 23754 The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil
p.87 p.87 23755 Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility
p.89 p.89 23756 The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts
p.92 p.92 23758 Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired
p.92 p.92 23757 The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love
p.93 p.93 23761 Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality)
p.93 p.93 23759 Everything which originates in love is beautiful
p.93 p.93 23760 All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty
p.94 p.94 23762 Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people
p.95 p.95 23763 Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it
p.95 p.95 23764 The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice
1943 Is There a Marxist Doctrine?
p.163 p.163 23877 Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it
p.169 p.169 23878 Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action
p.171 p.171 23879 In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality
p.173 p.173 23880 When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war
1943 The Need for Roots
I 'Collective' p.35 23843 Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display
I 'Equality' p.18 23841 By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal
I 'Needs' p.3 23835 People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them
I 'Needs' p.4 23836 Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives
I 'Needs' p.6 23837 Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words
I 'Obedience' p.14 23839 A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler
I 'Opinion' p.28 23842 Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party
I 'Order' p.12 23838 The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs
I 'Responsibility' p.15 23840 A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society
II 'Country' p.93 23848 The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish
II 'Nation' p.118 23849 Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light
II 'Nation' p.162 23850 The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war
II 'Towns' p.63 23845 The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests
II 'Towns' p.68 23846 Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers
II 'Towns' p.77 23847 Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population
II 'Uprootedness' p.43 23844 The most important human need is to have multiple roots
III 'Growing' p.188 23851 Education is essentially motivation
III 'Growing' p.238 23852 To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish
III 'Growing' p.250 23853 Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality
III 'Growing' p.266 23854 Beauty is the proof of what is good
III 'Growth' p.282 23855 Creation produced a network or web of determinations