Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

Weakness' is weakness only in light of the aims man sets for himself, the instruments at his disposal and the laws he imposes.

I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.

The misfortune is that although everyone must come to [death], each experiences the adventure in solitude. We never left Maman during those last days... and yet we were profoundly separated from her.

Man must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity of his being but, on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it.

— There you are. The sight of the changing world is miraculous and heartbreaking, both at the same time. — But so it is for me too. The heartbreaking side of growing old is not in the things around one but in oneself.

the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed

Alone: for the first time I understood the terrible significance of that word. Alone without a witness, without anyone to speak to, without refuge. The breath in my body, the blood in my veins, all this hurly-burly in my head existed for nobody.

You said something very true the other day: that for us, nudity begins with the face.

One of the benefits that oppression secures for the oppressor is that the humblest among them feels superior.

أكثر ما كان يجذبني إليه ضحكته: فكأنما سقط، من غير انتظار، على كوكب ليس هو كوكبه، فأخذ يكتشف طرافته العجيبة. و حين كانت ضحكته تنفجر، كان كل شيء يبدو لي جديداً، أخاذاً، رائعاً.

Enforced maternity brings into the world wretched infants, whom their parents will be unable to support and who will become the victims of public care or ‘child martyrs’. It must be pointed out that our society, so concerned to defend the rights of the embryo, shows no interest in the children once they are born; it prosecutes the abortionists instead of undertaking to reform that scandalous institution known as ‘public assistance’; those responsible for entrusting the children to their torturers are allowed to go free; society closes its eyes to the frightful tyranny of brutes in children’s asylums and private foster homes.

The way I approached a question, my habit of mind, the way I looked at things, what I took for granted - all this was myself and it did not seem to me that I could alter it.

A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man.

I could not help but comment to my distinguished audience that every question asked about Sartre concerned his work, while all those asked about Beauvoir concerned her personal life.

The whole world was nothing but an exile with no hope of a return.