Simone Weil, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The two forces that rule the universe are light and gravity.1 Every natural movement of the soul is controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity; grace alone is the exception.2 This is not a metaphor — or rather, it is a metaphor only in the way that all true analogies are: the physical and the moral are governed by the same structural law, and gravity names what pulls every creature downward, toward self-preservation, self-assertion, the enlargement of the moi.3
What gravity does, concretely, is this: it impels each creature to seek everything that can preserve or enlarge it, and psychologically it shows itself in every motive directed toward asserting or reinstating the self — the lies of the inner life, the escape into dreams or false ideals, the imaginary encroachments on past and future by which we bolster a tottering existence from within.4
When someone shows that he needs another, the latter draws back: gravity.5 When suffering is easier to bear for a base motive than for a noble one, when the energy available for virtue is lower than the energy available for baseness: gravity.6 Even language can be corrupted by it — when pain drives me to say words that cause pain to another, I have obeyed the force of gravity, and that is what I call the greatest sin, because it corrupts the function of language, which is to express the relationship between things.7
Grace is the only movement that escapes this law. But it cannot be seized; it can only be received. Any attempt to deliver oneself from gravity by one's own energy is like a cow that pulls at its hobble and falls to its knees — the effort liberates a certain amount of energy only by degrading more, a vicious circle from which one can be delivered only from on high.8
The source of moral energy is outside the self, as food and air are outside the body; privation alone makes the creature feel its need, and in privation it will turn to anything whatever that is edible.9 There is only one remedy: what I call a chlorophyll that confers the faculty of feeding on light.10 This is why the work of grace consists in decreating us.
God consented through love to cease to be everything so that we might be something; we must consent through love to cease to be anything so that God may become everything again.11 The self that must be abolished is that shadow thrown by sin and error which stops the light of God and which we mistake for a being.12 Without this unconditional consent to be nothing, all heroism and immolation remain subject to gravity — what we call our offering is merely a label attached to a compensatory assertion of the I.13
Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness; the imagination perpetually tends to stop up the cracks through which grace flows.14 Creation itself is the descending movement of gravity; grace is the law of the descending movement of the second degree — to lower oneself is to rise in the domain of moral gravity, and moral gravity makes us fall toward the heights.15
Between the necessary and the good lies the distance between the creature and the creator, and that distance is what the book holds open for contemplation rather than closing.16 The absence of God is the most marvellous testimony of perfect love, and pure necessity — necessity manifestly different from good — is beautiful precisely because it preserves that distance intact.17
Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.Gravity and Grace, pp. 1–2
All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.Gravity and Grace, pp. 1–2
Gravity is the force which above all others draws us from God. It impels each creature to seek everything which can preserve or enlarge it.Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
Psychologically it is shown by all those motives which are directed towards asserting or reinstating the self, by all those secret subterfuges (lies of the inner life, escape in dreams or false ideals, imaginary encroachments on the past and the future, etc.) which we make use of to bolster up from inside our tottering existence.Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
What is the reason that as soon as one human being shows he needs another (no matter whether his need be slight or great) the latter draws back from him? Gravity.Gravity and Grace, pp. 1–2
If it be true that the same suffering is much harder to bear for a high motive than for a base one (the people who stood, motionless, from one to eight o'clock in the morning for the sake of having an egg, would have found it very difficult to do so in order to save a human life)...Gravity and Grace, pp. 1–2
When in this state, I have several times succumbed to the temptation at least to say words which cause pain. Obedience to the force of gravity. The greatest sin. Thus we corrupt the function of language, which is to express the relationship between things.Gravity and Grace, pp. 2–4
Any attempt to gain this deliverance by means of my own energy would be like the efforts of a cow which pulls at its hobble and so falls onto its knees. In making it one liberates a certain amount of energy in oneself by a violence which serves to degrade more energy. Compensation as in thermodynamics; a vicious circle from which one can be delivered only from on high.Gravity and Grace, pp. 2–4
The source of man's moral energy is outside him, like that of his physical energy (food, air etc.)... Privation alone makes him feel his need. And, in the event of privation, he cannot help turning to anything whatever which is edible.Gravity and Grace, pp. 2–4
There is only one remedy for that: a chlorophyll conferring the faculty of feeding on light.Gravity and Grace, pp. 2–4
God consented through love to cease to be everything so that we might be something; we must consent through love to cease to be anything so that God may become everything again.Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
It is therefore a question of abolishing the self within us, 'that shadow thrown by sin and error which stops the light of God and which we take for a being.'Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
'We can offer nothing short of ourselves. Otherwise what we term our offering is merely a label attached to a compensatory assertion of the "I"'.Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness... we must suspend the work of our imagination, 'which perpetually tends to stop up the cracks through which grace flows.'Gravity and Grace, pp. xxi–xxii
Creation is composed of the descending movement of gravity, the ascending movement of grace and the descending movement of the second degree of grace... To lower oneself is to rise in the domain of moral gravity. Moral gravity makes us fall towards the heights.Gravity and Grace, pp. 2–4
The distance between the necessary and the good is the distance between the creature and the creator. The distance between the necessary and the good: this is a subject for endless contemplation.Gravity and Grace, pp. 105–106
The absence of God is the most marvellous testimony of perfect love, and that is why pure necessity, necessity which is manifestly different from good, is so beautiful.Gravity and Grace, pp. 105–106