what is real

Strictly speaking, time does not exist (except within the limit of the present), yet we have to submit to it. Such is our condition. We are subject to that which does not exist. Whether it is a question of passively borne duration — physical pain, waiting, regret, remorse, fear — or of organized time — order, method, necessity — in both cases, that to which we are subject does not exist. But our submission exists. We are really bound by unreal chains. Time, which is unreal, casts over all things, including ourselves, a veil of unreality ...

What is real in perception and distinguishes it from dreams is not sensations, but the necessity enshrined in these sensations ...

A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.

-- Simone Weil Gravity and Grace
Translated by Arthur Wills