The quotations of

Simone Weil

French philosopher, writer, and social activist

1909–1943

22 quotes, most often on Atheism, Religion and Truth & Lies.

Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.
The Iliad or The Poem of Force (1940-1941), p. 192
One of the most exquisite pleasures of human love — to serve the loved one without his knowing it — is only possible, as regards the love of God, through atheism.
Last Notebook (1942) p. 84
- Atheism
- Love
Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees
- Art
It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.
Gravity and Grace (1947), p. 159 (1972 edition)
- Politics
- Religion
I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.
Void and Compensation (1947), p. 200
- Forgiveness
The eulogies of my intelligence are positively intended to evade the question “Is what she says true?”
Letter to her parents (1943), as quoted in the Introduction by Siân Miles
- Intelligence
- Truth & Lies
There is nothing that comes closer to true humility than the intelligence. It is impossible to feel pride in one’s intelligence at the moment when one really and truly exercises it.
Simone Weil: An Anthology (1986), p. 35
- Intelligence
- Pride
Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.
Attention and Will (1947), p. 213
- Truth & Lies
Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification.
“Faiths of Meditation; Contemplation of the divine” as translated in The Simone Weil Reader (1957) edited by George A. Panichas, p. 417
Among those in whom the supernatural part of themselves has not been awakened, the atheists are right and the believers wrong.
“Faiths of Meditation; Contemplation of the divine” as translated in The Simone Weil Reader (1957) edited by George A. Panichas, p. 417
- Atheism
- Religion
Every atheist is an idolater — unless he is worshipping the true God in his impersonal aspect. The majority of the pious are idolaters.
Last Notebook (1942) p. 308
- Atheism
- Religion
The real sin of idolatry is always committed on behalf of something similar to the State.
Prelude to Politics (1943), p. 199
- Government
To believe that the desire for good is always fulfilled — that is faith, and whoever has it is not an atheist.
Last Notebook (1942) p. 137
- Atheism
- Faith
Every time that a man has, with a pure heart, called upon Osiris, Dionysus, Buddha, the Tao, etc., the Son of God has answered him by sending the Holy Spirit.
Letter to a Priest (1951), Section 8
- God
- Religion
The surrealists have set up non-oriented thought as a model; they have chosen the total absence of value as their supreme value.
On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God (1968), “The responsibility of writers,” p. 167
- Art

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