The absence of the dead… is their way of appearing.

About Simone Weil

Portrait of Simone Weil

Simone Adolphine Weil (; French: [simɔn adɔlfin vɛj]; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, political activist and labourer. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality and politics have remained widely influential in contemporary philosophy.

More quotations from Simone Weil

Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.

Whether the mask is labeled Fascism, Democracy, or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, our great adversary remains the Apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier or the battle lines,… but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this Apparatus, and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.

democracy bureaucracy

If we forgive God for his crime against us, which is to have made us finite creatures, he will forgive our crime against him, which is that we are finite creatures.

The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non- payment of debts is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.

soul home rootedness

More quotations tagged with “absence”

I dote on his very absence.

—William Shakespeare

You see, for me, memories are difficult. Very often, they hurt. A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they're inaccessible.

—Casey McQuiston in White & Royal Blue

pain grief absence memories

What was it about life now? The people who weren't present always seemed to be more important than the people who were.

—Elin Hilderbrand in Beautiful Day

life present absence fondness

There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things. And then comes a day when you realize that is not how it will be at all. You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realize, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps, though you can put your hand out to where things were and feel that tense, shining dullness of the space where the memories are.

—Helen Macdonald in H is for Hawk

life expectations loss absence memories

Absence—that common cure of love.

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

The absence of the dead . . . is their way of appearing.