Men owe us what we imagine they will give us. We must forgive them this debt.
Interpretation
We often project expectations onto others that may not align with reality, and it's important to forgive them for not meeting these imagined expectations.
Simone Weil's quote emphasizes the tendency of individuals to create expectations about what others should provide or fulfill, often based on our own desires or imaginations. It highlights the psychological burden of these unmet expectations and encourages a mindset of forgiveness, suggesting that one should not hold others accountable for not living up to the ideals we conjure in our minds, thus promoting emotional health and deeper understanding in relationships.
In practice
In a discussion on managing relationships and expectations, you might cite this quote to explain the necessity of understanding and forgiving others.
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?
Symbolic violence is violence wielded with tacit complicity between its victims and its agents, insofar as both remain unconscious of submitting to or wielding it.
Many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big.
Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!
Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
Everything is explained now. We live in an age when you say casually to somebody 'What's the story on that?' and they can run to the computer and tell you within five seconds. That's fine, but sometimes Iβd just as soon continue wondering. We have a deficit of wonder right now.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.