Simone Weil

(1909 - 1943)

Called by Albert Camus “the only great spirit of our time,” Simone Weil once wrote, shortly before dying of tuberculosis, “At the bottom of the heart of every human being…there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him. It is this above all that is sacred in every human being.” Many of Weil’s writings, among them The Need for Roots and Waiting for God, were published posthumously.