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Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, 13 April 1942

PhilosophyMind

The story behind the card

Weil wrote this in a letter of 13 April 1942 to the poet Joë Bousquet, whom she had recently met in Carcassonne. Wounded in the spine as a soldier in 1918, Bousquet spent the rest of his life in bed in a shuttered room, writing and receiving writers and friends. Attention was central to Weil's thought: the French philosopher, who had worked in factories to understand manual labour, believed that truly noticing another person is a rare gift. She died in England in 1943, aged 34.

Türkçe oku
Dikkat, cömertliğin en ender ve en saf biçimidir.
Simone Weil, Joë Bousquet'ye mektup, 13 Nisan 1942

Weil bu sözü, kısa süre önce Carcassonne'da tanıştığı şair Joë Bousquet'ye 13 Nisan 1942'de yazdığı mektupta söyler. Bousquet 1918'de askerken omurgasından yaralanmış, ömrünün geri kalanını panjurları kapalı bir odada yatağa bağlı geçirmişti; orada yazıyor, yazar ve dostlarını ağırlıyordu. Dikkat, Weil'in düşüncesinin merkezindeydi. Kol emeğini anlamak için fabrikalarda çalışmış olan Fransız filozof, bir başkasını gerçekten fark etmenin ender bir armağan olduğuna inanıyordu. 1943'te, 34 yaşında İngiltere'de öldü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Simone Weil
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