“Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive in its naked truth the object that is to penetrate it.”

—  Simone Weil

Waiting on God (1950), Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God
Context: Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive in its naked truth the object that is to penetrate it.
All wrong translations, all absurdities in geometry problems, all clumsiness of style, and all faulty connection of ideas in compositions and essays, all such things are due to the fact that thought has seized upon some idea too hastily, and being thus prematurely blocked, is not open to the truth.

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 "Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive in its naked truth the objec…" by Simone Weil?
Simone Weil photo
Simone Weil 193
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909–1943

Related quotes

Simone Weil photo

“Attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object; it means holding in our minds, within reach of this thought, but on a lower level and not in contact with it, the diverse knowledge we have acquired which we are forced to make use of.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Waiting on God (1950), Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God

Anthony de Mello photo

“If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know. An overwhelming passion for it.” “No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer
Bhagawan Nityananda photo

“Once the well should be emptied of its water. All the mud should be removed. The water which then comes is the purest. Jnana is like this pure water. Once you burn away the thought of 'I' and 'mine', then non-attachment to the objects of the senses will result of its own accord.”

Bhagawan Nityananda (1897–1961) Hindu guru and saint

254
The Chidakasha Gita (1927)

Vincenzo Cuoco photo

“If the art of eloquence is the art of persuading, there is no other eloquence but that of saying the truth, only the truth, the naked truth. Words, since it is a necessity of our infirm nature to clothe thought, will be the more powerful the more they are suited to their aim, that is the more naked they will leave the truth, which resides in thought.”

Vincenzo Cuoco (1770–1823) Italian historian and writer

Se l'arte dell'eloquenza è l'arte di persuadere, non vi è altra eloquenza che quella di dire sempre il vero, il solo vero, il nudo vero. Le parole, onde è necessità di nostra inferma natura di rivestire il pensiero, saranno tanto più potenti, quanto più atte al fine, cioè più nudo lasceranno il vero, che è nel pensiero.
Platone in Italia

John Ruysbroeck photo

“If we would taste God, and feel in ourselves Eternal Life above all things, We must go forth into God with a faith that is far above our reason, And there dwell, simple, idle, without image, Lifted up by love into the Unwalled Bareness of our intelligence. For when we go out from ourselves in love, and die to all observances in ignorance and darkness, Then we are made complete, And transfigured by the Eternal Word, Image of the Father. And in this emptiness of spirit we receive the Incomprehensible Light, Which enfolds and penetrates us as air is penetrated by the light of the sun; And this Light is nought else but a fathomless gazing and seeing. What we are, that we gaze at; and what we gaze at, that we are. For our thought, our life, our being, are lifted up in simplicity, And united with the Truth, that is God. Therefore in this simple gazing we are one life and one spirit with God
—And this I call the seeing life.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

The Sparkling Stone (c. 1340)

John Shelby Spong photo

“Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth.”

John Shelby Spong (1931) American bishop

Source: Resurrection: Myth or Reality? (1994), p. 37

Charles Mackay photo

“Cannon-balls may aid the truth
But thought’s a weapon stronger;
We’ll win our battles by its aid,
Wait a little longer.”

Charles Mackay (1814–1889) British writer

"The Good Time Coming".
Voices from the Crowd, and Town Lyrics (1857)
Context: There’s a good time coming, boys!
A good time coming.
We may not live to see the day,
But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
Cannon-balls may aid the truth
But thought’s a weapon stronger;
We’ll win our battles by its aid,
Wait a little longer.

Leonard Cohen photo

“Please make me empty, if I'm empty then I can receive, if I can receive it means it comes from somewhere outside of me, if it comes from outside of me I'm not alone! I cannot bear this loneliness. Above all it is loneliness.”

Leonard Cohen book Beautiful Losers

Source: Beautiful Losers

“It awes by the majesty of its truths, it agitates by the force of its compunctions, it penetrates the heart by the tenderness of its appeals, and it casts over the abyss of thought, the shadow of its eternal grandeur.”

Henry Giles (1809–1882) Irish minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 140.

John Ruysbroeck photo

“And this divine light is granted in the simple being of the spirit, where the spirit receives the brightness –which is God Himself- above all gifts and above all creaturely activity, in the empty void of the spirit in which it has lost itself through enjoyable love and receives the brightness of God without intermediary. And without cease, it becomes the very brightness which it receives.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

The Spiritual Espousals (c. 1340)

Related topics