Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Simone Veil

by Philip Yaffe

Part 16 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call "pithy prose". These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It's like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain's famous dictum, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win!

This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn't have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

Who Is Simone Veil?

Simone Veil (born July 13, 1927) is a French lawyer and politician who has served in a number of high offices, including French Minister of Health and President of the European Parliament. She is a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she lost part of her family. She was elected to the prestigious French Academy (Académie française) in November 2008.

1. A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.
   
   

2.    A mind enclosed in language is in prison.

3.    A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.


4.    All sins are attempts to fill voids.


5.    An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.

6.    As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.


7.    Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.


8.    Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers.

9.    Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.


10.   Every time that I think of the crucifixion of Christ, I commit the sin of envy.


11.   Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.


12.   Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty.


13.   Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.


14.   Humility is attentive patience.


15.   I can, therefore I am.


16.   I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.


17.   I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic that becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.


18.   Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

19.   In struggling against anguish, one never produces serenity. The struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.

1. In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.
   
   

22.   In the intellectual order, the virtue of humility is nothing more or less than the power of attention.

23.   It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.

24.   It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more or less just. It is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.


25.   Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure.

1. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.
   
   

34.   The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know.

35.   The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation, through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.


36.   The role of intelligence -- that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions -- is merely to submit.

1. We can only know one thing about God -- that He is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate Him.
   
   

42.   We must prefer real hell to an imaginary paradise.


43.   What a country calls its vital interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.


44.   Whatever debases intelligence degrades the entire human being.


45.   When a contradiction is impossible to resolve except by a lie, then we know that it is really a door.

Part 1:    Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Part 2:    Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

Part 3:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of People Named "W"

Part 4:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Anatole France

Part 5:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Ambrose Bierce

Part 6:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Friedrich Nietzsche

Part 7:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Anon

Part 8:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of People Named "H"

Part 9:    Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Johann Goethe

Part 10:  Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Eric Hoffer

Part 11:  Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Blaise Pascal

Part 12:  Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Robert Frost

Part 13:  Pithy Prose:  More Wit & Wisdom of Anon

Part 14:  Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Elbert Hubbard

Part 15:  Pithy Prose:  The Wit & Wisdom of Friedrich Schiller

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe

Brussels, Belgium

Tel:        +32 (0)2 660 0405

Email:    phil.yaffe@yahoo.com,phil.yaffe@gmail.com