Simone de Beauvoir: Quotes about love
Simone de Beauvoir was French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. Explore interesting quotes on love.
Force of Circumstances Vol. III (1963) as translated by Richard Howard (1968) - Excerpt online http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/1963/interview.htm
General sources
Context: 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.
As quoted in Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anaïs to Zee (1997) by Wayne M. Bryant, p. 143
Attributed
As quoted in Successful Aging : A Conference Report (1974) by Eric Pfeiffer, p. 142
Attributed
All Said and Done (1972), p. 16 ISBN 1569249814
General sources
“Be loved, be admired, be necessary; be somebody.”
Source: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
“Some things I loved have vanished. A great many others have been given to me”
Source: The Woman Destroyed
“It is so tiring to hate someone you love.”
Source: The Woman Destroyed
“I love you, with a touch of tragedy and quite madly.”
Source: Letters to Sartre
“If I had amnesia, I'd be almost like other men. Perhaps I'd even be able to love you.”
Raimon to Regina. p. 17
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Source: All Men are Mortal (1946), p. 5