Simone Weil (3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist.
Weil's whole life was marked by an exceptional compassion for the suffering of others; at the age of six, for instance, she refused to eat sugar after she heard that soldiers fighting in the First World War had to go without. She died from tuberculosis during the Second World War, possibly exacerbated by malnutrition after refusing to eat more than the minimal rations that she believed were available to soldiers at the time.
After completing her education, Weil became a professor. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks due to poor health and to devote herself to political activism, work that would see her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the left in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer so she could better understand the working class.
Unusually among twentieth century left-leaning intellectuals, she became more religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed. Weil wrote throughout her life, though most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In the 1950s and 1960s, her work became famous on continental Europe and throughout the English speaking world. Her fame began to decline in the late sixties, and she is now rarely taught at universities. Yet her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields; a meta study from the University of Calgary found that between 1995 and 2012, over 2500 new scholarly works had been published about her. While sometimes described as odd, humourless and irritating, she inspired great affection in many of those who knew her. Albert Camus described her as "the only great spirit of our times".
Read more about Simone Weil: Philosophy, Works, Legacy
Famous quotes by simone weil:
“There can be a true grandeur in any degree of submissiveness, because it springs from loyalty to the laws and to an oath, and not from baseness of soul.”
—Simone Weil (19091943)
“In relation to God, we are like a thief who has burgled the house of a kindly householder and been allowed to keep some of the gold. From the point of view of the lawful owner this gold is a gift; From the point of view of the burglar it is a theft. He must go and give it back. It is the same with our existence. We have stolen a little of Gods being to make it ours. God has made us a gift of it. But we have stolen it. We must return it.”
—Simone Weil (19091943)
“It is only the impossible that is possible for God. He has given over the possible to the mechanics of matter and the autonomy of his creatures.”
—Simone Weil (19091943)
“The real stumbling-block of totalitarian régimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is mens inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement, except during a few years of their youth.”
—Simone Weil (19091943)
“Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy.”
—Simone Weil (19091943)