Simone de Beauvoir cytaty

strona 5

„Oto jak wygląda życie: dom, kobieta, której nie kocha się ani za bardzo, ani za mało. A ona, jak kocha? Przypuszczam, że i zanadto i za mało, jak wszystkie kobiety.”

„To dla kobiety katastrofa być kochaną przez literata.”

„Nagość zaczyna się od twarzy, a bezwstyd od słów.”

„Nie mów nigdy wobec mężczyzny, że jakaś kobieta jest piękna, bo mógłby sobie wyobrazić, że ty jej nie dorównujesz. I bądź pewna, że żadna kobieta nie będzie na tyle głupia, aby odwzajemnić twoje pochwały.”

„Nie sposób bronić demokracji demokratycznymi metodami.”

„Zbyt wiele kobiet otacza się miłością i szacunkiem, by je zdradzić uważając się za mężczyznę honoris causa.”

„Kobieta przebacza wszystko. Ale za to często przypomina o tym, że przebaczyła.”

„Kobieta nigdy nie powinna wobec mężczyzny mówić o innej, że jest piękna, bo może on sobie wyobrazić, że jej nie dorównuje – a żadna kobieta nie jest na tyle głupia, by odwzajemnić te pochwały.”

„To wstrętne, gdy kobieta, odwołując się do mózgu mężczyzny, stara się przyciągnąć go do swego ciała.”

„Bogactwo zawsze nastawione jest na pokaz, ale życie człowieka biednego – to rzecz poufna.”

„Miłość właściwie nigdy nie ma nas wyłącznie na celu – jest niepewna, jak życie, ale nienawiść nigdy nie chybia – jest pewna jak śmierć.”

„Pewien typ wyrzutów sumienia chroni nas przed innymi wyrzutami.”

„Być nikim to w gruncie rzeczy przywilej.”

„Nic bardziej zgubnego, jak żyć w cieniu sławy. Człowiek gaśnie.”

„Okropnie przykro jest patrzeć, jak umiera nadzieja.”

„Kiedy miłość jest wystarczająco silna, oczekiwanie staje się szczęściem.”

„Dzięki utożsamieniu członka z transcendencją sukcesy społeczne i duchowe mężczyzny promieniują również na czysto męskie walory.”

„Nikt by nie uwierzył, jakie mnóstwo łez mieści się w kobiecych oczach.”

„Kiedy człowiek naprawdę nie chce dłużej kochać, wtedy kochać przestaje, ale ta decyzja nigdy nie jest przypadkowa.”

„Co to jest człowiek dorosły? Dziecko nadęte latami.”

„Im mniej rozpoznaję się w swoim ciele, tym bardziej czuję się zobowiązana do tego, by o nie dbać. Zostało mi ono powierzone: pielęgnuję je niczym przyjaciela, którego potrzebuję.”

„Takie dziwne zatracić się całkowicie w kimś innym. Ale jakaż nagroda, gdy się tego kogoś odnajduje w sobie.”

„Gospodyni domowa drepce w miejscu, nic nie czyni, tylko utrwala czas teraźniejszy; nie ma ona wrażenia, że zdobywa pozytywne Dobro, lecz tylko że bezustannie walczy przeciw Złu.”

„Cóż warta byłaby miłość, gdyby cokolwiek mogło ją zastąpić? Miłość jest ostateczna, jak śmierć.”

„Czy nie warto by zawiązać ligi, która by występowała przeciw wszystkim innym ligom?”

„Kiedy człowiek jest zakochany, ukazuje się światu takim, jakim powinien być zawsze.”

„Świat waha się między wojną a pokojem i przyszłość zależy, być może, od jakiegoś drobiazgu; zbrodnią byłoby nie wypróbować wszystkiego, co mogłoby zapewnić spokój.”

„W gruncie rzeczy urlop to rzecz ogromnie męcząca: co dzień trzeba szukać sposobu, jak zabić czas.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Time is beginning to flow again.”

“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.”

“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?”

“It is impossible to do anything for anyone.”

“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.”

“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."”

“He had not applauded, he had remained seated, but he had looked at her steadily. From the depths of eternity he had looked at her and Rosalind became immortal. If I could believe him, she thought, if only I could believe him!”

“For the first time in my life, I took part in a real battle between men. The dead did not come to life again, the vanquished fled in disorder; every thrust of my lance helped save Carmona. That day, I would have died with a smile on my lips, certain of having contributed to a triumphant future for my city.”

“The present enshrines the past—and in the past all history has been made by men.”

“It is doubtless impossible to approach any human problems with a mind free from bias.”

“Dare to believe me. Dare!”

“You're unique like all other women.”

“To will freedom and to will to disclose being are one and the same choice; hence, freedom takes a positive and constructive step which causes being to pass to existence in a movement which is constantly surpassed.”

“The humanity of tomorrow will be living in its flesh and in its conscious liberty; that time will be its present and it will in turn prefer it. New relations of flesh and sentiment of which we have no conception will arise between the sexes; already, indeed, there have appeared between men and women friendships, rivalries, complicities, comradeships — chaste or sensual — which past centuries could not have conceived.”

“The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: "virtue", as the ancients called it, is defined at the level of "that which depends on us."”

“We must not believe, certainly, that a change in woman’s economic condition alone is enough to transform her, though this factor has been and remains the basic factor in her evolution; but until it has brought about the moral, social, cultural, and other consequences that it promises and requires, the new woman cannot appear.”

“Cooking is revelation and creation; and a woman can find special satisfaction in a successful cake or a flaky pastry, for not every one can do it: one must have the gift.”

“Woman is an existent who is called upon to make herself object; as subject she has an aggressive element in her sensuality which is not satisfied on the male body: hence the conflicts that her eroticism must somehow overcome.”