Quotes from Simone de Beauvoir

Feci presto a imparare a leggere.Tuttavia il mio pensiero si fermò a metà strada. Vedevo nell'immagine grafica l'esatto duplicato del suono che ad essa corrispondeva:emanavano insieme dalla cosa che esprimevano, e pertanto il loro rapporto non aveva nulla di arbitrario. La comprensione del segno non portò con se quella della convenzione.

I went to get a detective story. You have to kill time. But time will kill me too - and there´s the true, preestablished balance.

Every time a man dies, a child dies too, and an adolescent and a young man as well; everyone weeps for the one who was dear to him.

He formed his sentences hesitantly and then threw them at me with such force that I felt as if I were receiving a present each time

Authentic love must be founded on reciprocal recognition of two freedoms. For each of them, love would be the revelation of the self through the gift of the self and the enrichment of the universe.

The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels.

Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons that have been offered in explanation have seemed adequate.

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.

These worthy schoolteachers were not overburdened with diplomas, but as far as devotion and morality were concerned, they were second to none; they wore plum-colored silk blouses that caressed my cheeks when they pressed me to their bosoms.

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 the absolute truth.

The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.

Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority.

This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons hitherto brought forward in explanation of this fact has seemed adequate.

Art is an attempt to integrate evil.

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

The torment that so many young women know, bound hand and foot by love and motherhood, without having forgotten their former dreams.

All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.

It is for man to establish the reign of liberty in the midst of the world of the given. To gain the supreme victory, it is necessary, for one thing, that by and through their natural differentiation men and women unequivocally affirm their brotherhood.

Buying is a profound pleasure.

That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.