French - Philosopher | February 3, 1909 - August 24, 1943
Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.
Simone Weil
CompassionListeningSomeoneKnow
Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.
BeautyPromisesNeverAnythingGives
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.
CommunicationGodWallSeparationUs
To get power over is to defile. To possess is to defile.
PowerOverGetPossess
To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself.
HeroOrderGiveMustOneself
To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny.
DoorTyrannyMoralityKindOpenUp
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
I AmRootsThoughtChristianWithout
If Germany, thanks to Hitler and his successors, were to enslave the European nations and destroy most of the treasures of their past, future historians would certainly pronounce that she had civilized Europe.
FuturePastSheThanksEuropeWould
Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers.
CultureTeachersWillMoreTurnWho
A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.
PurposeFalseBeingDeceivedAvoid
Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses.
IdeasStoryFoolsNothingDeadMore
We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.
GodAloneKnowMoreHimImage
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