Simone Weil Quotes

Nothing exasperates the spirit in man more than power which seems unconquerable and which makes impotent all protest.

The only safety for the conquered is to expect no safety.

A man can submit today in order to resist tomorrow. My submission had been such. And because I had not been free to show my real feeling, to voice my true thoughts, my submission had bred bitterness and anger. And there were nearly ten million others who had submitted with equal anger and bitterness.

Powerlessness corrupts: absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely

A heavy aristocracy and corruption are two bridles in the mouths of a people which will prevent them from making any effectual efforts against their masters.

We do not support rebellion against our rulers even if they are unjust. We do not make supplications against them and do not set any revolution against them.

That which is given in submission becomes a medium of defiance.

Rebellion is the necessary result of injustice. It may not always achieve its purpose, or be intended to do so, but a conviction of injustice endured must precede articulate rebellion. Nor is it always certain that injustice will be followed by rebellion – it would be very much better for the world if this was the case. But where the victims of aggression or custom are ignorant and disunited, the opportunities for reasoned and effective revolt are practically reduced to nothing…

You got to take a deep breath and give up. The system is rigged against you.

I've always hated oppression.

I think that was when the headmaster realized he had lost; he realized then that he was finished. Because, what could he do? Was he going to tell us to stop praying? We kept our heads bowed; and we kept praying. Even as awkward as he was, the Rev. Mr. Merrill had made it clear to us that there was no end to praying for Owen Meany.

Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war.

Protest and anger practically always derives from hope, and the shouting out against injustice is always in the hope of those injustices being somewhat corrected and a little more justice established.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

In poor countries, the rich and powerful crush the poor and powerless.

Whoever is content with the world, and who profits from its lack of justice, does not want to change it.

You can't comfort the afflicted with afflicting the comfortable.

I don't hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people - and they're helpless with it.

It is very frightening to feel alone when you are standing against a rich and powerful person and all his attendant helpers.

Probably I understand very much the people who rise against injustice.

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them.

Repression or oppression never yet succeeded in crushing the truth or redressing a wrong.

I'm a perpetually mad person. I hate injustice. As far as I'm concerned, I'm living to fight injustice. I'm living to fight the goddamned thing. I'm too mad to sleep.

A people that patiently lets itself be trampled, deserves to be trampled and crushed.

This is a hard job to do …. We represent the underdog, and that makes the top dogs angry.