Simone Weil Quotes

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.

To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.

I'm concerned about - the oppression of the poor.

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

All down history, nine-tenths of mankind have been grinding corn for the remaining one-tenth, been paid with the husks, and bidden to thank God they had the husks.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

We are tired of being lynched physically in Mississippi, and we are tired of being lynched spiritually and economically in the North.

I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent..

I'm not quite sure precisely when social and political activism became a visible brand of my DNA, but it seems to me that I was born into it. It is hard to be born into the experience in the world of poverty and not develop some instinct for survival and resistance to those things that oppress you.

So long as we only believe in the justice of the state, of the law-made by those in power, to serve those in power-so long will we continue to be exploited by those in power.

I just think the most difficult thing to displace is privilege.

Racism is a way to gain economic advantage at the expense of others. Slavery and plantations may be gone, but racism still allows us to regard those who may keep us from financial gain as less than equals.

In a change of masters the poor change nothing except their master's name.

Unrestrained liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and excludes the most excluded.

I am going to fight capitalism even if it kills me. It is wrong that people like you should be comfortable and well fed while all around you people are starving.

I think that children are acutely sensitive to injustice because they live in a world that is absolutely filled with injustice. They have very, very little power, and they are extremely aware of power relations.

There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people.

Sexism, like racism, goes with us into the next century. I see class warfare as overshadowing both.

I believe in the power of media. I really do. It's my soapbox. And I do have an agenda, because I'm enraged by the limitations forced on people - by poverty, oppression, hatred, fear - and I'm saddened by the kind of loss we all experienced due to the contributions that people cannot make because of their circumstances.

Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery.

To hold a people in oppression you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed.

The pleasures of the mighty are obtained by the tears of the poor.

Victorian values meant brutalizing people who were often poor.

We need to work on the world so it will not be so oppressive.