1908-1986, French Novelist, Essayist
All oppression creates a state of war.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Oppression]
Buying is a profound pleasure.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Sales]
Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Change]
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 – [Guilt]
In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Arts and Artists]
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 – [Age and Aging]
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.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Parents and Parenting]
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Genius]
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 – [Service]
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 – [Retirement]
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 – [Sex]
Since it is the Other within us who is old, it is natural that the revelation of our age should come to us from outside –from others. We do not accept it willingly.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Age and Aging]
Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Society]
The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength –each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving. It is even more deceptive to dream of gaining through the child a plenitude, a warmth, a value, which one is unable to create for oneself; the child brings joy only to the woman who is capable of disinterestedly desiring the happiness of another, to one who without being wrapped up in self seeks to transcend her own existence.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Marriage]
The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Equality]
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Husbands]
To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Acceptance]
What is an adult? A child blown up by age.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Adulthood]
When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.
Simone De Beauvoir – [Feminism]