Weil, Simone

"Love is the only force that alters the direction of destructive impulses."

"The person who is not capable of making a promise is not capable of love."

"Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention."

"Time is not a line but a river, and we are carried along whether we will it or not."

"The greatest calamity is not to have suffered enough."

"Beauty belongs to the senses; not to the mind. But the mind can suffer from beauty's absence."

"Necessity is the explanation of why things are as they are."

"In every sphere of thought or action, a single great soul can elevate the masses."

"The more civilized a man becomes, the less able he is to read or hear anything in which feeling predominates over intellect."

"Science is a sacred obligation to know the truth."

"War is the lie of nature; peace is the truth of the soul."

"To desire everything is to desire nothing."

"The impossible is precisely what God alone can do."

"Idleness and lack of purpose are the greatest evils of the soul."

"One cannot be fully human while living in sin, but even the sinner carries the mark of divinity."

"Language is a map of the territory, but it is not the territory itself."

"The tragedy of the human condition is that we are born to be free and everywhere we are in chains."

"Reality is what most resists our understanding."

"A moment of pure attention is a moment of grace."

"The soul craves order as the body craves food."

"Affliction is the only doorway to truth."

"The highest form of intelligence is the capacity to refrain from using our power."

"We don't give enough emphasis to the mysterious aspects of the world; too much light blinds as well as illuminates."

"Indifference is the real death of the soul."

"The responsibility of the writer is to tell the truth that no one else will tell."

"Democracy is not a form of government; it is a form of prayer."

"Energy, used to suppress, corrupts the soul; energy used to elevate, saves it."

"The truly powerful person is one who has learned to say no."

"To wait for grace is to wait without the assurance of waiting."

"A people without history cannot be free."