more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
At the bottom of every human heart …there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all crimes committed, suffered and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him. It is this above all that is sacred in every human being.
Gist of Idea
The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil
Source
Simone Weil (Human Personality [1943], p.71)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.71
A Reaction
I'm thinking that this expectation may come from having at least one loving parent, and failing that there are people who have no such expectation as adults. Simone obviously thinks the hope runs deeper than that.
| 20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
| 2893 | In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless [Nietzsche] |
| 18308 | A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem [Nietzsche] |
| 2894 | Value judgements about life can never be true [Nietzsche] |
| 2895 | The value of life cannot be estimated [Nietzsche] |
| 18322 | When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us [Nietzsche] |
| 18321 | To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it [Nietzsche] |
| 23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
| 20282 | The sanctity of a human life depends either on being of our species, or on being a person [Singer] |
| 4661 | What matters is not intrinsic value of life or rights, but worthwhile and desired life, and avoidance of pain [Glover] |