Authors — Quotes

Simone de Beauvoir Quotes: 17

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.
The Mandarins
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.
La Vieillesse
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.
The Second Sex
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[...].
The Woman Destroyed
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.
The Woman Destroyed
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)
The Second Sex
Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.
The Second Sex
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.
Le deuxième sexe II
Be loved, be admired, be necessary; be somebody.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death.
The Ethics of Ambiguity
‎A day in which I don't write leaves a taste of ashes.