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Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

Simone Weil

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
SIMONE WEIL

Himself Intelligence Men Pride Proud
There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice.
SIMONE WEIL

Crime Justice Modern Name Wisdom
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.
SIMONE WEIL

Hands Kindness Money Pain Reach Suffering
A man thinks he is dying for his country,” said Anatole France, “but he is dying for a few industrialists.” But even that is saying too much. What one dies for is not even so substantial and tangible as an industrialist.
SIMONE WEIL

Country Death Industry Men Thinking
It is only necessary to know that love is a direction and not a state of the soul. If one is unaware of this, one falls to despair at the first onslaught of affliction.
SIMONE WEIL

Direction Fall Love Oneself Soul
In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.
SIMONE WEIL

Angry Grief Production Struggle
It is much easier to imagine ourselves in the place of God the Creator than in the place of Christ crucified.
SIMONE WEIL

Creation God Imagination Ourselves Place
Patriotism is idolatry of the self.
SIMONE WEIL

Myself One Liner Patriot
Religion as a source of consolation is an obstacle to true faith.
SIMONE WEIL

Faith Obstacle Religion True
I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.
SIMONE WEIL

Forgiveness Imagination Myself
Expectant waiting is the foundation of the spiritual life.
SIMONE WEIL

Expectation Foundation Life Spiritual
The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.
SIMONE WEIL

Greatness Lying Religion Seek Suffering
Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.
SIMONE WEIL

Dangerous Existence Human Tremble
It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.
SIMONE WEIL

Mistake Ourselves Understand
Contradiction is the lever of transcendence.
SIMONE WEIL

Contradict Transcendence
When once a certain class of people has been placed by the temporal and spiritual authorities outside the ranks of those whose life has value, then nothing comes more naturally to men than murder.
SIMONE WEIL

Authority Class Life Men Murder People Spiritual
God’s love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God’s love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.
SIMONE WEIL

God Love Ourselves Reason
The world is God’s language to us.
SIMONE WEIL

God Language One Liner World
Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.
SIMONE WEIL

Direction Distance Ourselves Sin Wrong
Modern life is given over to immoderation. Immoderation invades everything: actions and thought, public and private life.
SIMONE WEIL

Action Life Modern Private Public Thinking
An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.
SIMONE WEIL

Aspect Atheist Concentration Love
Love is not consolation, it is light.
SIMONE WEIL

Life Light Love
Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.
SIMONE WEIL

Day Effort Light Powerful Result Soul
It is only from the light which streams constantly from heaven that a tree can derive the energy to strike its roots deep into the soil. The tree is in fact rooted in the sky.
SIMONE WEIL

Heaven Light Nature Root Sky Tree
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
SIMONE WEIL

Boredom Evil Happiness Imagination Reality
We are like plants which have the one choice of being in or out of the light.
SIMONE WEIL

Choice Light Oneself Plant
Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
SIMONE WEIL

Attention One Liner Prayer

Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

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Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

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