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Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

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Famous Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

“I would stand transfixed before the windows of the confectioners' shops, fascinated by the luminous sparkle of candied fruits, the cloudy lustre of jellies, the kaleidoscope inflorescence of acidulated fruit drops - red, green, orange, violet: I coveted the colours themselves as much as the pleasure they promised me.”

PleasureFoodRedWindowGreenCookingFruitColourShopsCulinaryFascinatedOrangeVioletLuminousSparkleJellyCloudyKaleidoscopeRed Green
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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“Between women love is contemplative; caresses are intended less to gain possession of the other than gradually to re-create the self through her; separateness is abolished, there is no struggle, no victory, no defeat; in exact reciprocity each is at once subject and object, sovereign and slave; duality become mutuality.”

SelfLove IsStruggleSubjectsObjectsVictoryGainsSlaveDefeatPossessionSovereignDualityReciprocityContemplativeCaressSeparateness
Book:The Second Sex
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“Whatever the country, capitalist or socialist, man was everywhere crushed by technology, made a stranger to his own work, imprisoned, forced into stupidity. The evil all arose from the fact that he had increased his needs rather than limited them; . . . As long as fresh needs continued to be created, so new frustrations would come into being. When had the decline begun? The day knowledge was preferred to wisdom and mere usefulness to beauty. . . . Only a moral revolution - not a social or political revolution - only a moral revolution would lead man back to his lost truth.”

MenNeedsLongMadeCountryFactsPoliticalEvilLostSocialLossMoralTechnologyRevolutionMereStrangerStupidityDisasterFrustrationCapitalistDeclineSocialistCrushedUsefulnessPolitical Revolution
Book:Les Belles Images
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“The state of emotional intoxication allows one to grasp existence in one's self and in the other, as both subjectivity and passivity. The two partners merge in this ambiguous unity; each one is freed of his own presence and achieves immediate communication with the other.”

TwoSelfStatesExistenceAchieveEmotionalCommunicationUnityPartnersSubjectivityAmbiguousIntoxicationPassivity
Book:The Marquis de Sade: an essay by Simone de Beauvoir
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“There is the problem of unpaid labor, such as housework, which represents millions and millions of unsalaried work hours and on which masculine society is firmly based. To put an end to this would be to send the present-day capitalist system flying in a single blow. Only we can't do it by ourselves; there have to be other kinds of attacks on the system. So a certain alliance with revolutionary systems is necessary, even masculine ones.”

KindEndsProblemWould BeCertainHoursMillionsLaborBlowFlyingRevolutionaryCapitalistMasculineAlliancesPresent DayHousework
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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“Most feminists in France came to feminism after '68 as a result of the hypocrisy they experienced in leftist movements. In these movements, where everyone believed there was going to be true equality, fraternity between men and women, and that together they were going to struggle against this rotten society, even there they noticed that the leftists, the militants, kept them "in their place." Women made the coffee while the others did the talking; they were the ones who typed the letters.”

MenMadeTogetherResultsTalkingStruggleFeminismMovementMen And WomenLettersFeministCoffeeBeing TrueFranceHypocrisyRottenFraternityLeftistsTrue Equality
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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“The renewed use of lobotomy today is particularly applicable to women: Because they do routine things, it is possible to take away their spirit of revolt, of debate, of criticism, and still leave them perfectly capable of making stews or washing dishes. It's terrible, this tendency to consider women something dangerous to society.”

StillsUseTodaySpiritDangerousTerribleCapableCriticismDebateTendenciesRoutineDishesWashingRevoltStewLobotomyWashing Dishes
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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“I think that feminism permits women to speak among themselves, instead of simply being resentful, having personal complaints, which get them nowhere and which make them sick and ill-tempered, depressive and poison the lives of their husbands and children. It's much better to arrive at a collective consciousness of this problem, which is both a kind of therapy and the basis for a struggle.”

ThinkingKindChildrenProblemSpeakConsciousnessStruggleFeminismHusbandSickBasesIllTherapyPoisonCollectivesPermitComplaintsResentfulDepressiveCollective ConsciousnessIll Tempered
Author:Simone de Beauvoir
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