“We believe we are rising because while keeping the same base inclinations (for instance: the desire to triumph over others) we have given them a noble object. We should, on the contrary, rise by attaching noble inclinations to lowly objects.”

—  Simone Weil, book Gravity and Grace

Croire qu’on s’élève parce qu’en gardant les mêmes bas penchants (exemple : désir de l’emporter sur autrui) on leur a donné des objets élevés. On s’élèverait au contraire en attachant à des objets bas des penchants élevés.
La pesanteur et la grâce (1948), p. 61
Source: Gravity and Grace (1947), p. 48 (1972 edition)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We believe we are rising because while keeping the same base inclinations (for instance: the desire to triumph over oth…" by Simone Weil?
Simone Weil photo
Simone Weil193
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909–1943

Related quotes

Fulton J. Sheen photo

“We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Life Is Worth Living

Samuel Johnson photo

“We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.”

Samuel Johnson The Idler

No. 80 (October 27, 1759)
The Idler (1758–1760)

L. Frank Baum photo

“Beautiful things may be admired, if not loved," asserted the Tin Man. "Flowers are beautiful, for instance, but we are not inclined to marry them. Duty, on the contrary, is a bugle call to action, whether you are inclined to act, or not. In this case, I obey the bugle call of duty.”

L. Frank Baum book The Tin Woodman of Oz

The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918), Ch. 2 : The Heart of the Tin Woodman
Later Oz novels

James Russell Lowell photo

“Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Sonnet IV
Sonnets (1844)

Thomas Merton photo

“We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Thoughts in Solitude (1956)
Context: Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël photo

“Superstition attaches to this life, and religion to the next; superstition is allied to fatality, and religion to virtue; it is from the vivacity of earthly desires that we become superstitious, and it is, on the contrary, by the sacrifice of these same desires that we are religious.”

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) Swiss author

Ten Years' Exile (Dix années d'exil, written 1810–1813, posthumously published 1821), ch. 16

William Shakespeare photo

“Why should we rise because 'tis light?
Did we lie down because t'was night?”

William Shakespeare book Shakespeare's Sonnets

Source: Shakespeare's Sonnets

C. Rajagopalachari photo

“If we believe that God is everywhere… why should we not believe He is in objects to which so much concentrated devotion is attached? Christians believe in the doctrine of original sin. Hindus believe in the doctrine of acquired sin. But all of us believe that God, by whatever name we call Him, is in the world.”

C. Rajagopalachari (1878–1972) Political leader

Rajagopalachari, quoted in: Monica Felton (1962) Rajaji, p. 57

Mahmoud Darwich photo

“We are captives, even if our wheat grows over the fences/ and swallows rise from our broken chains./ We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are.”

Mahmoud Darwich (1941–2008) Palestinian writer

Source: Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems

Ivar Jacobson photo

“The control objects model functionality that is not naturally tied to any other object… We do not believe that the best (most stable) systems are built by only using objects that correspond to real-life entities, something that many other object-oriented analysis and design techniques claim… Behavior that we place in control objects will, in other methods, be distributed over several other objects, making it hard to change this behavior.”

Ivar Jacobson (1939) Swedish computer scientist

Source: Object-Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach (1992), p. 133 as cited in: " Object Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach Ivar Jacobson, et al. (1992) http://tedfelix.com/software/jacobson1992.html", Book review by Ted Felix on tedfelix.com, 2006.

Related topics