Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Profoundly inspirational Simone de Beauvoir quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Simone de Beauvoir Quotes
Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. Simone de Beauvoir
I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself. Simone de Beauvoir
Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken. Simone de Beauvoir
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. Simone de Beauvoir
Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male. Simone de Beauvoir
She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal. Simone de Beauvoir
Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable. Simone de Beauvoir
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. Simone de Beauvoir
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir
One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others. Simone de Beauvoir
It is not in giving life but in risking life that man is raised above the animal; that is why superiority has been accorded in humanity not to the sex that brings forth but to that which kills. Simone de Beauvoir
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. Simone de Beauvoir
One is not born a woman, but becomes one. Simone de Beauvoir
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. Simone de Beauvoir
When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior. Simone de Beauvoir
That’s what I consider true generosity You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. Simone de Beauvoir
One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir
A man attaches himself to woman not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself. Simone de Beauvoir
If you live long enough, you’ll see that every victory turns into a defeat. Simone de Beauvoir
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job. Simone de Beauvoir
On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in her strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger. Simone de Beauvoir
The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women. Simone de Beauvoir
No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility. Simone de Beauvoir
Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying. Simone de Beauvoir
To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself. Simone de Beauvoir
I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir
Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male. Simone de Beauvoir
In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid. Simone de Beauvoir
What an odd thing a diary is the things you omit are more important than those you put in. Simone de Beauvoir
Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap heap. Simone de Beauvoir
One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir
Art is an attempt to integrate evil. Simone de Beauvoir
All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception. Simone de Beauvoir
Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male’s superiority. Simone de Beauvoir
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir
Buying is a profound pleasure. Simone de Beauvoir
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth. Simone de Beauvoir
All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them. Simone de Beauvoir
Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. Simone de Beauvoir
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Simone de Beauvoir
The body is not a thing, it is a situation it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our Project. Simone de Beauvoir
What is an adult? A child blown up by age. Simone de Beauvoir
If you live long enough, you’ll see that every victory turns into a defeat. Simone de Beauvoir
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth. Simone de Beauvoir
If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male’s arrogance made it a discussion. Simone de Beauvoir
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
Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive. Simone de Beauvoir
No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility. Simone de Beauvoir
Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. Simone de Beauvoir
I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. Simone de Beauvoir
I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir
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. Simone de Beauvoir
What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty? Simone de Beauvoir
To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object. Simone de Beauvoir
Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to. Simone de Beauvoir
This has always been a man’s world, and none of the reasons that have been offered in explanation have seemed adequate. Simone de Beauvoir
She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust. Simone de Beauvoir
The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels. Simone de Beauvoir
My life was hurrying, racing tragically toward its end. And yet at the same time it was dripping so slowly, so very slowly now, hour by hour, minute by minute. One always has to wait until the sugar melts, the memory dies, the wound scars over, the sun sets, the unhappiness lifts and fades away. Simone de Beauvoir
Why one man rather than another? It was odd. You find yourself involved with a fellow for life just because he was the one that you met when you were nineteen. Simone de Beauvoir
Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized. Simone de Beauvoir
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
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. Simone de Beauvoir
All oppression creates a state of war. Simone de Beauvoir
There was once a man who lost his shadow. I forget what happened to him, but it was dreadful. As for me, I’ve lost my own image. I did not look at it often; but it was there, in the background, just as Maurice had drawn it for me. A straightforward, genuine, authentic woman, with out mean mindedness, uncompromising, but at the same time understanding, indulgent, sensitive, deeply feeling, intensely aware of things and of people, passionately devoted to those she loved and creating happiness for them. A fine life, serene, full, harmonious. It is dark I cannot see myself anymore. And what do the others see? Maybe something hideous. Simone de Beauvoir
The word love has by no means the same sense for both sexes, and this is one cause of the serious misunderstandings that divide them. Simone de Beauvoir
In a way, literature is true than life, he said to himself. On paper, you say exactly and completely what you feel. How easy it is to break things off on paper! You hate, you shout, you kill, you commit suicide; you carry things to the very end. And that’s why it’s false. But it’s damned satisfying. In life, you’re constantly denying yourself, and others are always contradicting you. On paper, I make time stand still and I impose my convictions on the whole world; they become the only reality. Simone de Beauvoir
