Just as a person who is always asserting that he is too good-natured is the very one from whom to expect, on some occasion, the coldest and most unconcerned cruelty, so when any group sees itself as the bearer of civilization this very belief will betray it into behaving barbarously at the first opportunity.
Simone WeilTo claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good-โthat it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.
Simone WeilWar, which perpetuates itself under the form of preparation for war, has once and for all given the State an important role in production.
Simone WeilThere is no greater joy for me than looking at the sky on a clear night with an attention so concentrated that all my other thoughts disappear; then one can think that the stars enter into one's soul.
Simone WeilWhether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatusโthe bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.
Simone Weil