"Most often attention is confused with a kind of muscular effort.If one says to one's pupils: 'Now you must pay attention,' one sees them contracting their brows, holding their breath, stiffening their muscles.If after two minutes they are asked what they have been paying attention to, they cannot reply. They have been concentrating on nothing.They have not been paying attention. They have been contracting their muscles.We often expend this kind of muscular effort on our studies.As it ends by making us tired, we have the impression that we have been working. That it an illusion....The intelligence can only be led by desire.For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work.The intelligence only grows and bears fruit in joy.The joy of learning is as indispensible in study as breathing is in running."
-Simone Weil
Wonderful quote! How did you discover Simone Weil? I can't remember which quote of hers I had found, years ago, but it inspired me to read her work. Unfortunately, that is still on my to-do list, but you've provided me the inspiration to revisit that dream...
ReplyDeleteI read this quote in a post from TJED (Thomas Jefferson Education) which I receive...how enlightening it was. I find myself "concentrating" like this. I was unfamiliar with Simone Weil before this.
ReplyDelete