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<h1 id="generosity-and-attention">Generosity and Attention</h1>
<ul class="post-metadata">
<li><time datetime="2018-06-03">03 June 2018</time></li>
<li><a href="/tags/writing/" class="post-tag">writing</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Among the reading Ive picked up thanks to suggestions from the most generous readers of the draft of <a href="http://generousthinking.hcommons.org"><em>Generous Thinking</em></a> is a bit of Simone Weil. Alan Jacobs, who pointed me toward her work in a couple of spots, noted in particular that she <a href="https://generousthinking.hcommons.org/1-introduction/generous-thinking/#comment-94">“seems to have thought that /[attention/] is the primary form of generosity.”</a> So Ive been reading around in the places where her thoughts turn to attention, including <a href="https://amzn.to/2J9buN0"><em>Gravity and Grace</em></a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/2LTrjck"><em>Waiting for God</em></a>.</p>
<p>A quick search online for Weil and attention, however, surfaces a vast number of references to her most quotable quote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that quote is never accompanied by a citation; in fact, <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-exact-source-and-citation-for-the-Simone-Weil-quotation-%E2%80%9CAttention-is-the-rarest-and-purest-form-of-generosity?share=1">this incompletely answered question on Quora</a> leads not to a source but to yet another quotation. Its the free-floating nature of that aphorism that I suspect leads Alan to say that she “seems” to have thought this connection between attention and generosity.</p>
<p>So I find myself in an odd spot: The quotation, assuming its a quotation, perfectly describes the thing I am trying to explore. And yet this specific point is small enough, and there are so many other issues in revising the manuscript that also demand my attention, that I can only give so much time to running down the source, assuming there is one.</p>
<p>Im opting to go with an “attributed to” reference, at least for the moment, but Id be enormously grateful if anyone were able to point me to an actual original.</p>
<ul class="links-nextprev"><li class="links-nextprev-prev">← Previous<br> <a href="/3070-2/">Recentering</a></li><li class="links-nextprev-next">Next →<br><a href="/la-plus-rare-et-la-plus-pure/">La plus rare et la plus pure</a></li>
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