Q0359

Simone Weil

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Absolute attention is prayer.
Thinker Simone Weil
School Mysticism
Source Gravity and Grace
Theme Attention
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Gravity and Grace, within the tradition of Mysticism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of attention, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Simone Weil's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Simone Weil. (n.d.). Absolute attention is prayer. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0359

MLA: Simone Weil. “Absolute attention is prayer..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0359.

Chicago: Simone Weil. “Absolute attention is prayer..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0359.

Same thinker

More from Simone Weil

  1. Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
  2. Prayer consists of attention.

All quotations by Simone Weil

Same theme

More on attention

  1. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  2. The essential achievement of the will is to attend to a difficult object and hold it fast before the mind.
  3. Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
  4. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
  5. Prayer consists of attention.

Browse the attention theme