Quote #51

To desire friendship is a great fault. Friendship should be a gratuitous joy like those afforded by art or life. We must refuse it so that we may be worthy to receive it; it is of the order of grace. [p.274]

More from Simone Weil

  1. God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves. [p.270]
  2. To wish to escape from solitude is cowardice. Friendship is not to be sought, not to be dreamed, not to be desired; it is to be exercised (…
  3. If we love God while thinking that he does not exist, he will manifest his existence. [p.260]
  4. Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death. [p.277]
  5. The miser deprives himself of his treasure because of his desire for it. [p.260]
  6. Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity. [p.277]
  7. 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]
  8. The most important part of education - to teach the meaning of to know (in the scientific sense).

All Simone Weil quotes