We must leave on one side the beliefs which fill up voids and sweeten what is bitter. The belief in immortality. The belief in the utility of sin: etiam peccata. The belief in the providential ordering of events - in short the 'consolations' which are ordinarily sought in religion. [p.258]
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- We should avoid using beliefs that comfort us or make hard things easier, like belief in an afterlife or that suffering has a purpose.
- In plain terms
- Stop using beliefs just to feel better about hard times or death.
- What can you take from it?
- Reject comforting religious beliefs that obscure truth.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What beliefs comfort you?
- Are you avoiding hard truths?
Another view
Some people need comfort to cope with trauma, making this stance too harsh.
More from Simone Weil
It is not in a person's nature to desire what he already has. Desire is a tendency, the start of a movement toward something, toward a point from which one is …
Permalink to quote #45 We should desire neither the immortality nor the death of any human being, whoever he may be, with whom we have to do. [p.260]
Permalink to quote #47 An imaginary perfection is automatically at the same level as I who imagine it - neither higher nor lower. [p.240]
Permalink to quote #44
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