more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
We must not have any other love than charity. A nation cannot be an object of charity. But a country can be one - as an environment bearing traditions which are eternal. Every country can be that.
Gist of Idea
Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation
Source
Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace (9 extracts) [1943], p.146)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.146
A Reaction
This definitely strikes a chord with me. I am English and British to the core, but don't feel any love at all for the current central institutions of the state. But I love my island, and its history, and its culture, and its style.
| 23807 | The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil] |
| 23808 | There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil] |
| 23809 | Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil] |
| 23810 | Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil] |
| 23811 | If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil] |
| 23825 | We seek truth only because it is good [Weil] |
| 23826 | Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil] |
| 23831 | The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil] |
| 23830 | A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil] |
| 23833 | The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil] |
| 23765 | The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil] |