Quotes from Simone de Beauvoir

Today, the majority of workers are exploited. Moreover, social structures have not been deeply modified by the changes in women's condition. This world has always belonged to men and still retains the form they have imprinted on it.

But it is not solipsistic, since the individual is define only by her relationship to the world and to other individuals; she exists only by transcending herself, and her freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others.

Así, todo esfuerzo del hombre por establecer una relación con el infinito es vana. No puede entrar en relación con Dios, sino a través de la humanidad, y en la humanidad, no alcanza jamás sino a ciertos hombres, y no puede crear sino situaciones limitadas. Si sueña con dilatarse al infinito, se pierde rápidamente. Se pierde en sueños pues, de hecho, no deja de estar ahí, de testimoniar por sus proyectos infinitos su presencia finita.

there was also a celebrated official sculptor whose works disfigured the whole of Paris

bstract gatherings such as conferences- do not use we; men say women, and women adopt this word to refer to themselves; but they do not posit themselves authentically as Subjects.

He made of his sexuality an ethic; he expressed this ethic in works of literature. It is by this deliberate act that Sade attains a real originality.

The evil which he had made his refuge vanished when crime was justified by virtue.

Women- except in abstract gatherings such as conferences- do not use we; men say women, and women adopt this word to refer to themselves; but they do not posit themselves authentically as Subjects.

Não é mais amor: sou apenas um hábito.

Art and science do not establish themselves despite failure but through it;

human transcendence must cope with the same problem: it has to found itself, though it is prohibited from ever fulfilling itself.

To 'remake woman', society would have had to have already made her really man's equal.

in the United States a "poor white" from the South can console himself for not being a "dirty nigger"; and more prosperous whites cleverly exploit this pride.

El opresor no sería tan fuerte si no tuviese cómplices entre los propios oprimidos

Pienso en el cuento de Poe: los muros de hierro que se acercan, y el péndulo en forma de cuchillo que oscila por encima de mi corazón. En ciertos momentos se detiene, pero jamás se eleva. No está más que a algunos centímetros de mi piel.

Eroticism implies a claim of the instant against time, of the individual against the collectivity; it affirms separation against communication; it rebels against all regulation; it contains a principle hostile to society. Social customs are never bent to fit the rigor of institutions and laws: love has forever asserted itself against them.

it is not the Other who, defining itself as Other, defines the One; the Other is posited as Other by the One positing itself as One. But in order for the Other not to turn into the One, the Other has to submit to this foreign point of view.

A long life filled with laughter, tears, quarrels, embraces, confessions, silences, and sudden impulses of the heart: and yet sometimes it seems that time has not moved by at all. The future still stretches out to infinity.

Les plus brûlantes images sont froides au prix d'une sensation.

Many young couples give the impression of perfect equality. But as long as the man has economic responsibility for the couple, it is just an illusion.

Ce n'est donc pas l'amitié qui brisera la solitude où l'homme s'est enfermé; il n'est jamais possible à un individu de partager les joies et les peines d'un autre, ni même de les comprendre. Les êtres sont impénétrables, les consciences sont incommunicables; dans l'amour, l'amitié, dans toutes les affections, chacun reste pour l'autre un mystérieux étranger.

Mi ero voluta senza limiti ed ero informe come l'infinito

In our opinion, there is no public good other than one that assures the citizens' private good; we judge institutions from the point of view of the concrete opportunities they give to individuals.

Avevo perduto la sicurezza dell'infanzia; in cambio non avevo guadagnato niente.