Simone Weil Quotes

How shall we expect charity towards others, when we are uncharitable to ourselves?

The root of compassion, is compassion for oneself.

In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.

How easy it is to be compassionate when it's yourself you see in trouble.

Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.

I don't want to sound self-righteous, and I don't want to act like I have it all put together.

You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

If I can't really find a way to live with myself, I can't expect anyone else to live with me.

As we come to grips with our own selfishness and stupidity, we make friends with the impostor and accept that we are impoverished and broken and realize that, if we were not, we would be God. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads to being gentle with others -- and is a natural prerequisite for our presence to God in prayer.

What you do for yourself, any gesture of kindness, any gesture of gentleness, any gesture of honesty and clear seeing toward yourself, will affect how you experience your world. In fact, it will transform how you experience the world. What you do for yourself, you’re doing for others, and what you do for others, you’re doing for yourself.

Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us?

Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.

We can’t practice compassion with other people if we can’t treat ourselves kindly.

I don't have time to beat myself up over my fallible nature. Instead I use my energy to learn from my past and let it inform my future. It's time to own all of our glory, mistakes, mess and light and be gentle to ourselves. Let's be kind to our spirits and celebrate the truth of our hearts.

I'm hard on myself, so I'm working on shifting perspective toward self-acceptance, with all my flaws and weaknesses.

I was a solipsist and a narcissist and much too arrogant. I have a lot more compassion now, but it took a long time.

The moment that we realize our attention has wandered is the magic moment of the practice, because that's the moment we have the chance to be really different. Instead of judging ourselves, and berating ourselves, and condemning ourselves, we can be gentle with ourselves.

Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn - and those are all good things.

Learning to love yourself is not going to happen overnight - the first step is trying to be kinder and more patient with yourself, and I understand that it takes time.

Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves.

If you love yourself, if you truly love yourself, then you'll see other people in yourself, and you won't behave that way.

If we begin to get in touch with whatever we feel with some kind of kindness, our protective shells will melt, and we'll find that more areas of our lives are workable. AS we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others-what and whom we can work with, and how-becomes wider.

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself.

I hope you will be yourself, human, even a little sentimental, possessed of a sense of humor and a sense of humility. . . . There are arrogant people in this world and, what is worse, arrogant judges.