We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.
Interpretation
Instead of hoping for our problems to vanish, we should seek the ability to change and grow from them.
This quote by Simone Weil encourages us to face our troubles head-on rather than wishing them away. It emphasizes that the true strength lies in our capacity to transform our challenges into opportunities for growth, resilience, and grace. By understanding and accepting our difficulties, we can learn valuable lessons and become stronger individuals.
In practice
In a motivational talk about resilience, I might say, 'As Simone Weil puts it, we must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles, but for the grace to transform them.'
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?
When we make mistakes, we can use the process of NVC mourning and self-forgiveness to show us where we can grow instead of getting caught up in moralistic self-judgments.
Do you know anything on earth which has not a dangerous side if it is mishandled and exaggerated?
Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.
To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing not only more about the world, but also more about myself.
Ease makes less of an impression on us than struggle.
All things come round to him who will but wait.
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