Quotes from book
The Mandarins

Name: The Mandarins
Author: Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de BeauvoirOriginal title Les Mandarins (French, 1954)

The Mandarins is a 1954 roman à clef by Simone de Beauvoir, for which she won the Prix Goncourt, awarded to the best and most imaginative prose work of the year, in 1954. The Mandarins was first published in English in 1956 .

“She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“Because we are separated everything separates us, even our efforts to join each other.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“He formed his sentences hesitantly and then threw them at me with such force that I felt as if I were receiving a present each time”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“She offered her mouth to him, as if enchanted. A Persian princess, a little Indian, a fox, a morning glory, a lovely wisteria--it always pleased them when you told them they looked like something, like something else.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“People seem to think that if you keep your head empty you automatically fill your balls.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

“All the opportunities you let slip by! The idea, the inspiration just doesn´t come fast enough. Instead of being open, you´re closed up tight. That´s the worst sin of all - the sin of omission.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

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