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Simone de Beauvoir: 304 quotes35 likes

“When an individual (or a group of individuals) is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he is inferior. But the significance of the verb to be must be rightly understood here; it is in bad faith to give it a static value when it really has the dynamic Hegelian sense of "to have become." Yes, women on the whole are today inferior to men; that is, their situation affords them fewer possibilities. The question is: should that state of affairs continue?
Many men hope that it will continue; not all have given up the battle.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Introduction : Woman as Other
The Second Sex (1949)

“I'm never afraid. But in my case it's nothing to be proud of.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Raimon to Regina. p. 23
All Men are Mortal (1946)

“When Sartre and I met not only did our backgrounds fuse, but also our solidity, our individual conviction that we were what we were made to be. In that framework we could not become rivals. Then, as the relationship between Sartre and me grew, I became convinced that I was irreplaceable in his life, and he in mine. In other words, we were totally secure in the knowledge that our relationship was also totally solid, again preordained, though, of course, we would have laughed at that word then. When you have such security it's easy not to be jealous. But had I thought that another woman played the same role as I did in Sartre's life, of course, I would have been jealous.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Interview by John Gerassi in Society (January-February 1976) http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/1976/interview.htm <br class="br">General sources

“They were walking side by side, but each was alone.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Raimon to Regina, p. 53
All Men are Mortal (1946)

“It is for man to establish the reign of liberty in the midst of the world of the given. To gain the supreme victory, it is necessary, for one thing, that by and through their natural differentiation men and women unequivocally affirm their brotherhood.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

The Second Sex (1949)

“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.”

Simone de Beauvoir book Les Belles Images

Les Belles Images (1966), Ch. 3
General sources

“Even the children of Carmona were divided into two camps, and below the ramparts, among the brushwood and rocks, we battled with stones shouting "Long live the duke!" and others, "Down with the tyrant!" We fought viciously, but I was never satisfied with this game — the fallen enemy rose again, the dead came back to life. The day after a battle, victors and vanquished both found themselves unharmed.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Source: All Men are Mortal (1946), p. 72

“Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Conclusion, p. 543
The Coming of Age (1970)

“After wars peace, after peace, another war. Every day men are born and others die.”

Simone de Beauvoir

All Men are Mortal (1946)

“If I had amnesia, I'd be almost like other men. Perhaps I'd even be able to love you.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Raimon to Regina. p. 17
All Men are Mortal (1946)

“I was born in Italy on the 17th May 1279 in a castle in the city of Carmona.”

Simone de Beauvoir

71
All Men are Mortal (1946)

“It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Conclusion, p. 539
The Coming of Age (1970)

“You made me come to Paris. You pestered me to start living again. Well, now it's up to you to make my life livable. You mustn't let three whole days go by without coming to see me. … You wanted me to take notice of you. Now nothing else matters to me. I know you're alive and I feel emptiness inside me when you're away.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Raimon to Regina. p. 20
All Men are Mortal (1946)

“All agree in recognising the fact that females exist in the human species; today as always they make up about one half of humanity. And yet we are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted to be women, remain women, become women. It would appear, then, that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Introduction : Woman as Other http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm <br class="br">The Second Sex (1949)

“Were we really more advanced than the alchemists of Carmona? We had brought to light certain facts that they were not aware of, we had organised them into the right order; but had we advanced even a step nearer to the mysterious heart of the universe?”

Simone de Beauvoir

All Men are Mortal (1946)

“It is impossible to do anything for anyone.”

Simone de Beauvoir

Source: All Men are Mortal (1946), p. 317

“Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.”

Simone de Beauvoir

As quoted in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, Steve Deger and Leslie Ann Gibson, p. 525
Attributed

“She was beautiful, with a beauty so severe and so solitary that at first it was startling. "Ah! If only there were two of me," she thought, "one doing the talking and one listening, one living and one watching, how I would love myself. I'd envy no one."”

Simone de Beauvoir

Source: All Men are Mortal (1946), p. 5