- Lived:
- 1909–1943 · Paris, the factories of Boulogne-Billancourt, Marseille, New York, London — dead at 34 in a sanatorium in Kent
- Tradition:
- French religious and political philosophy; mystic, syndicalist, Platonist — a category of one
- The Big Idea:
- The rarest and most morally powerful thing a human being can do is pay real attention — emptying the self so that truth, and the suffering of others, can actually be seen.
- In their words:
- "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
- If you remember one thing:
- She tested every idea on her own body — the assembly line, the war, the hunger — and left behind, in fragments, one of the century's most complete philosophies of work, suffering, and love.