Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.
Interpretation
Liberty is fundamentally about the power to make choices.
In this quote, Simone Weil emphasizes that true liberty is not merely a theoretical concept but a practical ability that individuals possess to make choices. It highlights the intrinsic connection between human freedom and the capacity to select from various options, suggesting that the essence of liberty lies in the act of choosing, which defines our autonomy and personal agency.
In practice
During a lecture on political philosophy, one might quote this to illustrate the concept of personal autonomy.
The afflicted are not listened to. They are like someone whose tongue has been cut out and who occasionally forgets the fact. When they move their lips no ear perceives any sound. And they themselves soon sink into impotence in the use of language, because of the certainty of not being heard.
The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either
As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
How many people have been thus led, through lack of self-confidence, to stifle their most justified doubts?
When the head aches, all the members partake of the pain.
The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
It is unconceivable that the whole Universe was merely created for us who live in this third-rate planet of a third-rate moon.
Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings, I observe how all endings become beginnings
O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
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