Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth9 January 1908
CountryFrance
genius becoming impossible
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius; and the feminine situation has up to the present rendered this becoming practically impossible.
world return no-hope
The whole world was nothing but an exile with no hope of a return.
profound buying pleasure
Buying is profound pleasure.
trying oppression utility
Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility.
able limits existentialism
A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom. I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison.
anxiety body being-a-woman
It is in great part the anxiety of being a woman that devastates the feminine body.
want doe existence
Existence must be asserted in the present if one does not want all life to be defined as an escape toward nothingness.
sight heartbreaking world
--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.
men finding-yourself nineteen
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.
space giving tragedy
To give space when what one most yearns for is closeness, that is both the great test and great tragedy of love.
country lying moving
The past is not a peaceful landscape lying there behind me, a country in which I can stroll wherever I please, and will gradually show me all its secret hills and dales. As I was moving forward, so it was crumbling. Most of the wreckage that can be seen is colourless, distorted, frozen: its meaning escapes me... all that's left is a skeleton. I shall never find my plans again, my hopes and fears - I shall not find myself.
feminism doe inferiority
When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.
religious women hangover
She was trying to get rid of a religious hangover.
looks
She was not to look beyond herself for the meaning of her life.