All the natural movements of the soul are governed by laws analogous to those of material gravity. Grace alone is the exception.
One must always expect things to happen in accordance with gravity, unless there is supernatural intervention.
Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.
Gravity. In a general way, what we expect of others is determined by the effects of gravity in ourselves; what we receive from them is determined by the effects of gravity in them. Sometimes this coincides (by chance), often not.
Why is it that as soon as a human being shows he needs another, whether a little or greatly, that other draws away? Gravity.
Lear, a tragedy of gravity. Everything we call baseness is a phenomenon of gravity. Moreover, the very word baseness indicates this.
The object of an action and the level of energy that fuels it are distinct things.
One must do such and such a thing. But where does one find the energy? A virtuous action can degrade if there is no energy available at the same level.
The base and the superficial are at the same level. He loves violently but basely: a possible sentence. He loves deeply but basely: an impossible sentence. If it is true that the same suffering is much harder to bear for a lofty motive than for a base one (the people who stood in line, motionless, from one to eight in the morning to get an egg would have found it very hard to do so to save a human life), a base virtue is perhaps in certain respects more resistant to difficulties, temptations, and misfortunes than a lofty virtue. Napoleon's soldiers. Hence the use of cruelty to maintain or restore the morale of soldiers. One must not forget this with respect to failure. It is a particular case of the law that generally puts force on the side of baseness. Gravity is like a symbol of this. Food queues. The same action is easier if the motive is base than if it is lofty. Base motives contain more energy than lofty ones. Problem: how to transfer to lofty motives the energy devoted to base ones? One must not forget that at certain moments during my headaches, when the crisis was mounting, I had an intense desire to make another human being suffer by striking them precisely at the same spot on the forehead. Analogous desires are very frequent among people. Several times in this state I yielded at least to the temptation to say hurtful words. Obedience to gravity. The greatest sin. In this way one corrupts the function of language, which is to express the relations between things.
The attitude of supplication: I must necessarily turn toward something other than myself, since it is a matter of being delivered from myself. To attempt this deliverance by means of my own energy would be like a cow pulling on its tether and thus falling to its knees. Then one releases energy in oneself through a violence that degrades it further. Compensation in the thermodynamic sense, an infernal circle from which one can only be delivered from above. The source of moral energy in human beings is external, like that of physical energy (food, breathing). One generally finds it, and this is why one has the illusion—as with physical energy—that one's being carries within itself the principle of its own preservation. Only deprivation makes one feel the need. And, in case of deprivation, one cannot help turning toward anything edible. The only remedy for this: a chlorophyll that would allow one to feed on light. Do not judge. All faults are equal. There is only one fault: not having the capacity to feed on light. For once this capacity is abolished, all faults become possible. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me." No other good but this capacity. To descend with a movement in which gravity plays no part... Gravity makes things fall; the wing makes them rise: what wing raised to the second power can make one descend without gravity? Creation is made of the descending movement of gravity, the ascending movement of grace, and the descending movement of grace raised to the second power. Grace is the law of the descending movement. To lower oneself is to rise with regard to moral gravity. Moral gravity makes us fall upward. Too great a misfortune places a human being beneath pity: disgust, horror, and contempt. Pity descends to a certain level, and not below. How does charity manage to descend below? Do those who have fallen so low have pity on themselves?