"If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate."
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Quote collection
Simone Weil quotes (page 19 of 19)
374 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The only great spirit of our time."
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"Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself."
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"Rome is the Great Beast of atheism and materialism, adoring nothing but itself. Israel is the Great Beast of religion. Neither one nor the other is likable. The Great Beast is always repulsive"
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"Renunciation is submission to time."
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"Capitalism has brought about the emancipation of collective humanity with respect to nature. But this collective humanity has itself taken on with respect to the individual the oppressive function formerly exercised by nature."
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"Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death."
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"The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at."
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"We must wish either for that which actually exists or for that which cannot in any way exist or, still better, for both. That which is and that which cannot be are both outside the realm of becoming."
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"the instruments of power - arms, gold, machines, magical or technical secrets - always exist independently of him who disposes of them, and can be taken up by others. Consequently all power is unstable."
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"Whatever debases the intelligence degrades the entire human being."
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"The whole of our civilization is founded on specialization, which implies the enslavement of those who execute to those who coordinate."
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"We must love all facts, not for their consequences, but because in each fact God is there present."
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"We only possess what we renounce; what we do not renounce escapes from us."
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