Simone de Beauvoir Quotes
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Sign of old age: distress at all leave-takings, all separations. And the sadness of memories, because I'm aware they're condemned to death.
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It is not mere chance that makes families speak of a child who is 'extraordinary for his age' and also of an old man who is 'extraordinary for his age'; the extraordinariness lies in their behaving like human beings when they are either not yet or no longer men.
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Woman has always been man's dependent, if not his slave; the two sexes have never shaped the world in equality. And even today woman is heavily handicapped, though her situation is beginning to change.
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One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.
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She was not to look beyond herself for the meaning of her life.
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To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
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I think that feminism permits women to speak among themselves, instead of simply being resentful, having personal complaints, which get them nowhere and which make them sick and ill-tempered, depressive and poison the lives of their husbands and children. It's much better to arrive at a collective consciousness of this problem, which is both a kind of therapy and the basis for a struggle.
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It is impossible to do anything for anyone.
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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.
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The individuals who seem to us most outstanding, who are honored with the name of genius, are those who have proposed to enact the fate of all humanity in their personal existences.
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I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.
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There are so many problems. Women can go to work on these as well without giving up their feminism.
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There are cases where the slave does not know his servitude and where it is necessary to bring the seed of his liberation to him from the outside: his submission is not enough to justify the tyranny which is imposed upon him.
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Americans are nature-lovers: but they only admit of nature proofed and corrected by man.
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There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning.
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The nearer I come to the end of my days, the more I am enabled to see that strange thing, a life, and to see it whole.
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A man attaches himself to woman -- not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.
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Women aren't more easily swayed by fascism than men, but I believe that their situation makes them in effect more slavish than men.
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She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.
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Society turns away from the aged worker as though he belonged to another species. That is why the whole question is buried in a conspiracy of silence. Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilization.
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That is what chills your spine when you read an account of a suicide: not the frail corpse hanging from the window bars but what happened inside that heart immediately before.
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Dwelling-place and food are useful for life but give it no significance: the immediate goals of the housekeeper are only means, not true ends.
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Why does one exist? That's not my problem. One does exist. The thing to do is to take no notice but go at it on the run and to keep on going right on until you die.
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The Communists, following Hegel, speak of humanity and its future as of some monolithic individuality. I was attacking this illusion.