“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Simone Weil · Moral philosophy
lovemindethics
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Simone Weil
1909–1943 · Moral philosophy · Modern
Simone Weil was a philosopher, a teacher, and a factory worker who wrote on attention, affliction, and force. Much of what we read was notebooks and letters published after her death in 1943. Gravity and Grace is a selection arranged by Gustave Thibon, so a line from it is not a line from a book she finished.
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'Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity' is from a letter to Joë Bousquet in April 1942, and the French is secure. Attention, for her, is also a kind of waiting, including, in the religious writing, upon God. The essay on the Iliad says the true hero of the poem is force, that which turns a person into a thing.
Mary McCarthy's English is the usual one. The political Weil and the mystical Weil are the same person, which is why a generosity sentence without the force essay is half a portrait. She is severe about the will's pride. Curing a fault by attention rather than by muscular effort is a notebook thought, editorial in its setting, and still hers. She is not a mindfulness brand. The purity she means is the absence of grabbing.
The letter and a notebook sentence were already secured. The Iliad thesis is added. A fourth line was not taken from Thibon's arrangement and presented as a finished aphorism.
Start here
The Iliad essay, then the Bousquet letter.
One shows the politics of force. The other shows what she thought attention was. Together they stop either sentence becoming a mood.
Quotations
“We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.”
Simone Weil · Moral philosophy
selfvirtuemind
Paraphrase or translation
“The true hero, the true subject, the centre of the Iliad, is force.”
Simone Weil · Moral philosophy
powerethicssociety
Paraphrase or translation
Key ideas
Attention
A way of looking that does not spend the other person on your project. Rarer than advice.
Force
What turns persons into things, in the Iliad and in her own century.
Gravity
The pull of ego. Grace is the counter. The notebook book is Thibon's arrangement.
Major works
The Iliad, or the Poem of Force (1940–41)
McCarthy's translation. Force as the subject of the epic.
Letter to Joë Bousquet (13 April 1942)
The attention sentence. A letter, not a manual.
Gravity and Grace (notebooks; published 1947)
Thibon's selection. Cite it as an editorial object.
Waiting for God (letters and essays, posthumous)
Religious writing. Do not merge it silently with the letter.
Influences
Influenced
Common misreadings
- The attention sentence is a letter, not a later self-help paraphrase.
- Gravity and Grace is not a finished book. The order is Thibon's.
- Force is not a side interest. It is how she reads violence, including the violence of a style that turns people into things.
Famous lines Simone Weil never said
None of the lines this library files for Simone Weil is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
The Iliad essay, then the Bousquet letter. One shows the politics of force. The other shows what she thought attention was. Together they stop either sentence becoming a mood.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Simone Weil that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” (Letter to Joë Bousquet, 13 April 1942, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Simone Weil is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Attention: A way of looking that does not spend the other person on your project. Rarer than advice.