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Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

Writer

Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer, philosopher, feminist, and social activist. Known for her profound philosophical thoughts and her advocacy for women's status, she is one of the most influential female thinkers of the 20th century. Her works spanned various genres, including novels, philosophical essays, plays, and memoirs, with her most famous work being 'The Second Sex'.

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All Men Ifs Feminism World Thinking Writing Existence Women Humans Way Existentialism Want Doe Knows Children Feminine Made Situation Age Existential

Famous Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

“Ce n'est gue' re que dans les asiles que les coquettes gardent avec ente" tement une foi entie' re en des regards absents; normalement, elles re clament des te moins. Women fond of dress are hardly ever entirely satisfied not to be seen, except among the insane; usually they want witnesses.”

Want Regard Dresses Satisfied Insane Witness Coquette

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“They [Americans] want to believe that Good and Evil can be defined in precise categories, that Good is already, or will be easily achieved. ... if this optimism appears too superficial, they will try to create a kind of anti-God: the U.S.S.R. That is Evil, and it only needs to be annihilated to re-establish the reign of Good.”

Ifs Want Needs Trying Believe Kind Evil United States Optimism Defined Good And Evil Categories Reign Superficial Precise Anti God

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“Existence must be asserted in the present if one does not want all life to be defined as an escape toward nothingness.”

Ifs Want Doe Existence Defined Nothingness

Book:The Ethics of Ambiguity

Source: The Ethics of Ambiguity

“If you are truly on the left, if you reject ideas of power and hierarchy, what you want is equality. Otherwise, it won't work at all.”

Ifs Want Ideas Left What You Want Rejects Hierarchy

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“It's true that this is one of the problems which often arises among my radical, revolutionary feminist friends: Do you have to join the system or not? On the one hand, if you don't, you risk being ineffectual. But if you do, from that moment on, you place your feminism at the service of a system which you want to take apart.”

Ifs Want Moments Problem Hands Risk Feminism Feminist Arise Radical Revolutionary That Moment

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“As soon as a woman re- fuses to be perfectly happy doing housework eight hours a day, society has a tendency to want to do a lobotomy on her.”

Want Hours Eight Tendencies Housework Fuse Lobotomy

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“I think it's wrong to write in a totally esoteric language when you want to talk about things which interest a multitude of women.”

Thinking Want Writing Language Interest Multitudes Esoteric

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“Can one say that there is a way of crying out, of speaking, which is properly feminine? Personally, I don't think so. In the end, I find this is another way of putting women in a kind of singularity, a ghetto, which is not what I want. I want them to be singular and universal at the same time.”

Thinking Way Want Kind Ends Cry Universal Feminine Another Way Ghetto Singularity

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“Anais Nin shows an occasional grace in writing, but her work is quite foreign to me, precisely because she wants so much to be feminine and not feminist. And then she is so gaga before so many men. She talks about men I know in France, men who were less than nothing, and she considers them kings, extraordinary people.”

People Knows Men Want Writing Shows Grace Kings Extraordinary Feminist France Feminine Ordinary People Occasional Gaga

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.”

Want Father Expectations Daughter Notion Conform

Book:The Woman Destroyed

Source: The Woman Destroyed

“I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.”

Want Ends Accepting Adventure Goes On Infinity Incapable Conceiving

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“Insects were scurrying about in the shade cast by the grass, and the lawn was a huge monotonous forest of thousands of little green blades, all equal, all alike, hiding the world from each other. Anguished, she thought, "I don't want to be just another blade of grass."”

World Want Littles Huge Equal Green Casts Forests Grass Hiding Shade Insects Blades Lawns Monotonous Blades Of Grass

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“He reflected. 'I know a lot of different kids of people; what I want is to show each of them how the others really are. You hear so many lies!”

People Knows Want Different Shows Kids Lying

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.”

Men Want Writing Book Enjoy Difficult Work Loneliness Succeed Mad Selfish Greedy Good Book Be A Man Unselfish Many Friends Being Selfish

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“I don't want to be just another blade of grass.”

Want Grass Blades Blades Of Grass

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

“The time that one gains cannot be accumulated in a storehouse; it is contradictory to want to save up existence, which, the fact is, exists only by being spent and there is a good case for showing that airplanes, machines, the telephone, and the radio do not make men of today happier than those of former times.”

Men Want Facts Today Existence Cases Technology Gains Machines Radio Former Airplane Telephones Contradictory Science And Technology

Author:Simone de Beauvoir

About the Author

Born: January 9, 1908
Died: April 14, 1986
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 491

Books & Sources

The Second SexRelated source material

The Woman DestroyedRelated source material

The Ethics of AmbiguityRelated source material

Memoirs of a Dutiful DaughterRelated source material

The Philosophical Library Existentialism Collection: Essays in Metaphysics, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Philosophy of ExistentialismRelated source material

A Very Easy DeathRelated source material

Les Belles ImagesRelated source material

La vieillesseRelated source material

Quando tutte le donne del mondo...Related source material

The prime of lifeRelated source material

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