Rest and Restlessness: Good Quote

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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Good Quote

I re-stumbled across the following quote by the philosopher Simone Weil. I first encountered it in Pete Fitch's "Theological Reflections on Suffering" course at SSU.

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvellous, intoxicating.

A great thought for a day and age where evil is cast as the main star in every piece of popular culture.

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[12:37 AM, March 11, 2006]

anthony says:

Very true. Evil is rampantly romanticized while goodness is seen as stale and uninteresting.

[9:02 PM, March 12, 2006]

Unknown says:

Real good is also long lasting. The imaginary stuff dries up right quick.

[10:59 PM, March 12, 2006]

Matt says:

Good thoughts lads

You see this thinking so much in our language. Just today at church, somebody said "wicked" but meant it to mean "great!" Many other negatives that are used as positives: bad, ill, sick, etc.

And then there's the fact that so many of the words of goodness are seen negatively and perjoratively: holy, righteous are two prime examples.

[1:41 PM, March 14, 2006]

Unknown says:

Good point, I've never noticed that before.