Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.
Interpretation
Separation can create communication and connection, much like barriers can be used to reach out.
Simone Weil's quote illustrates the paradoxical relationship between separation and connection. Through the metaphor of prisoners communicating via a wall, she suggests that obstacles can also become channels for interaction, emphasizing that our perceived barriers, including our relationship with God, can serve as opportunities for deeper understanding and connection.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming difficulties, one might say: 'As Simone Weil noted, every separation is a link, emphasizing the potential for connection even through challenges.'
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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How many people have been thus led, through lack of self-confidence, to stifle their most justified doubts?
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
True masters are those who've chosen to make a life rather than a living.
God is not troubled by one who is conservative or liberal, and He certainly never inclines His ear toward a donkey or an elephant.
We need not throw away 200 years of American jurisprudence while we fight terrorism. We need not choose between our most deeply held values, and keeping this nation safe.
The real test of any church or religion is the kind of men it makes.
At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.
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