"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
"When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time."
39 likes
Source: Waiting on God (Routledge Revivals).
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Simone Weil
"We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them."
"Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on."
"There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction."
"Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand."
"Just as the power of the sun is the only force in the natural universe that causes a plant to grow against gravity, so the grace of God is the only force in the spiritual universe that causes a person to grow against the gravity of their own ego."