“The state of conformity is an imitation of grace.”

—  Simone Weil

Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), The Great Beast (1947), p. 124
Context: The state of conformity is an imitation of grace. By a strange mystery — which is connected with the power of the social element — a profession can confer on quite ordinary men in their exercise of it, virtues which, if they were extended to all circumstances of life, would make of them heroes or saints.
But the power of the social element makes these virtues natural. Accordingly they need a compensation.

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Simone Weil photo
Simone Weil 193
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909–1943

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