Single Idea 24185

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / d. Friendship]

Full Idea

Learn to thrust friendship aside, or rather the dream of friendship. To desire friends is a great fault. Friendship should be a gratuitous joy like those afforded by art or life. …Friendship is to be exercised (it is a virtue).

Gist of Idea

Friendship is a virtue, not a state we should dream of

Source

Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace [1942], 'Love')

Book Reference

Weil,Simone: 'Gravity and Grace', ed/tr. Crawford/De Ruhr [Routledge 1952], p.66


A Reaction

Presumably we won't have friends if we aren't friendly. Yearning for love is not love. She sounds a bit of a romantic here - that everything must come naturally, or not at all. Desiring friends may be a strategic error - but 'a great fault'?