Simone de Beauvoir

France
9 Jan 1908 // 14 Apr 1986
Writer

Quotes



Women's mutual understanding comes from the fact that they identify themselves with each other; but for the same reason each is against the others.

The Second Sex
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.

The Second Sex
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.

The Second Sex
Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.

The Second Sex
Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise.

The Second Sex
The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project.

The Second Sex
All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.

The Second Sex
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.

The Second Sex
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

The Second Sex
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays