… the development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the sole interest of studies. … All tasks that really call upon the power of attention are interesting for the same reason and to an almost equal degree. … [Students] should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.
Even if our efforts of attentions seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul. Every effort adds a little gold to a treasure no power on earth can take away.
Twenty minutes of concentrated, united attention is infinitely better than three hours of the kind of frowning application that leads us to say with a sense of duty done: “I have worked well.”
… every time that we really concentrate our attention, we destroy the evil in ourselves. If we concentrate with this intention, a quarter of an hour of attention is better than a great many good works.
–Excerpts from Simone Weil, “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God,” in Waiting for God
