Simone de Beauvoir
125 quotes
Biography
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion."
"She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal."
"I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end."
"I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger."
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."
"When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...]."
"In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation."
"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion"
"What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in."
"Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise."(p. 248)"
"Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized."
"It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living."
"On ne naît pas femme: on le devient."
"Be loved, be admired, be necessary; be somebody."
"Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death."
"A day in which I don't write leaves a taste of ashes."
"I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom."
"His personal prestige, his qualities, his competence assure him a preponderant role however; since 1927 he has been above all the unchallenged specialist on peasant question. But the power he exercises is no more dictatorial than, for example, Roosevelt's was. New China's Constitution renders impossible the concentration of authority in one man's hands; the country is governed by a team whose members have been united through a long common struggle and by a close friendship."
"The Communists, following Hegel, speak of humanity and its future as of some monolithic individuality. I was attacking this illusion."
"It was said that I refused to grant any value to the maternal instinct and to love. This was not so. I simply asked that women should experience them truthfully and freely, whereas they often use them as excuses and take refuge in them, only to find themselves imprisoned in that refuge when those emotions have dried up in their hearts. I was accused of preaching sexual promiscuity; but at no point did I ever advise anyone to sleep with just anyone at just any time; my opinion on this subject is that all choices, agreements and refusals should be made independently of institutions, conventions and motives of self-aggrandizement; if the reasons for it are not of the same order as the act itself, then the only result can be lies, distortions and mutilations."
"Il n'y a pas de mort naturelle: rien de ce qui arrive à l'homme n'est jamais naturel puisque sa présence met le monde en question. Tous les hommes sont mortels: mais pour chaque homme sa mort est un accident et, même s'il la connaît et y consent, une violence indue."
"It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself... It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do — or don't do."
"What is an adult? A child puffed with age."
"But presently I began to bubble with happiness. No, my daughters' absence did not sadden me at all—quite the reverse. I could drive as fast or as slowly as I liked, go where I liked, stop when the whim took me. I made up my mind to spend the week wandering about. I get up as soon as it is light. The car is waiting for me in the street or in the courtyard like a faithful animal; it is wet with dew; I wipe its eyes, and full of delight I tear away through the growing sunlight."