Do not allow yourself to be imprisoned by any affection. Keep your solitude. The day, if it ever comes, when you are given true affection, there will be no opposition between interior solitude and friendship, quite the reverse. It is even by this infallible sigh that you will recognize it.
Interpretation
True affection should not limit your personal solitude; they can coexist harmoniously.
In this quote, Simone Weil emphasizes the importance of maintaining one's personal solitude while welcoming true affection. She suggests that genuine connections do not conflict with inner peace, and that true affection enhances rather than detracts from our individuality. This introspective view encourages individuals to nurture their inner selves first, so that when they encounter authentic relationships, these will enrich their lives without diminishing their solitude.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of self-care, one might quote this to highlight the balance between solitude and companionship.
The afflicted are not listened to. They are like someone whose tongue has been cut out and who occasionally forgets the fact. When they move their lips no ear perceives any sound. And they themselves soon sink into impotence in the use of language, because of the certainty of not being heard.
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I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
How many people have been thus led, through lack of self-confidence, to stifle their most justified doubts?
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To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.
If we want our daughters to honor their bodies, they need to hear us honor ours, no matter what size or shape we are, no matter what scars or sags we see in that mirror.
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Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.
Be able to cite three good qualities of every relative or acquaintance that you dislike.
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