What is better to start this collection of my notes than a quote from Simone Adolphine Weil’s (1909-1943) First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge.
Some of Simone Weil’s most important thinking was done through the medium of her notebooks. She used them in several inter-related ways. First, she used them to note things she had read and was researching. Far more often, they were workbooks where she worked through her ideas. Many of the ideas in her completed essays can first be found in her notebooks, and thus the notebooks are invaluable for adding context and nuance along with a sense of development to the reading of those later essays.
Now, here are some notes of admonition from Simone Weil.
Temptation of idleness (by far the strongest)
Never surrender to the flow of time. Never put off what you have decided to do.
Temptation of the inner life
Deal only with those difficulties which actually confront you. Allow yourself only those feelings which are actually called upon for effective use or else are required by thought for the sake of inspiration. Cut away ruthlessly everything that is imaginary in your feelings.
Temptation of self-immolation
Subordinate to external affairs and people everything that is subjective, but never the subject itself — i.e. your judgement. Never promise and never give to another more than you would demand from yourself if you were he.
Temptation to dominate
Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.
Temptation of perversity
Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.
Refuse to be an accomplice. Don’t lie — don’t keep your eyes shut.