In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more nor less than the power of attention.
Interpretation
Humility enables focused attention and deep understanding.
Simone Weil's quote highlights that true humility is not just about modesty, but rather the capacity to direct one's attention effectively and earnestly. It suggests that being humble fosters an open mind, allowing us to learn and comprehend more profoundly, ultimately enhancing our intellectual pursuits.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one could say, 'As Simone Weil stated, humility, which is the power of attention, is essential for true understanding.'
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.
The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either
As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
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?
Forgive yourself for not being at peace.
At times God's best pupils experience the most rigorous and continuous courses. Eventually those who prove to be men of Christ will thereby become distinguished alumni of life's school of affliction, graduating with honors.
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
I've discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you.'
A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.
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