ABSTRACT
Simone Weil was born in Paris into a wealthy Jewish family. At the age of ten she declared herself a communist; her sympathy with the poor and oppressed is a constant theme in her life and writings. She attended university at the Sorbonne, where her asceticism and political views earned her the nickname of 'the red virgin'. On graduation she taught in a secondary school in Le Puy. Contrary to what is commonly believed, one moves from the general to the particular, from the abstract to the concrete. Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it.
