Quotes from Simone de Beauvoir

Magari mi troverai ridicola, ma mi disprezzerei se non osassi esserlo mai

Refusing to be the Other, refusing complicity with man, would mean renouncing all the advantages an alliance with the superior caste confers on them. Lord-man will materially protect liege-woman and will be in charge of justifying her existence: along with the economic risk, she eludes the metaphysical risk of a freedom that must invent its goals without help.

Das schimmste aber, wenn man ein Gefängnis aus unsichtbaren Mauern bewohnt, ist, dass man sich der Schranken nicht bewusst wird, die den Horizont versperren.

Membre d'une espèce privilégiée, bénéficiant au départ d'une avance considérable, si dans l'absolu un homme ne valait pas plus que moi, je jugerais que, relativement, il valait moins : pour le reconnaître comme mon égal, il fallait qu'il me dépassât.

No one is more arrogant, more aggressive or more disdainful towards women, than a man who is fearful for his masculinity.

My eyes followed André. Maybe it is during those moments, as I watch him disappear, that he exists for me with the most overwhelming clarity: his tall shape grows smaller, each pace marking out the path of his return; it vanishes and the street seems to be empty; but in fact it is a field of energy that will lead him back to me as to his natural habitat: I find this certainty even more moving than his presence.

Svakoj ženi bez razlike nije dato da bude posrednik izme?u muškarca i sveta. Muškarac se ne zadovoljava samo time da u partnerki prona?e seksualne organe koje dopunjavaju njegove. Potrebno je da ona oli?ava ?udesni procvat života i da u isto vreme prikriva njegove mutne tajne. Od nje ?e, pre svega, tražiti mladost i zdravlje, jer grle?i nešto živo muškarac ne može da se o?ara ako ne zaboravi da je ?itav život ispunjen smr?u.

La bella storia che era la mia vita diventava falsa a mano a mano che me la raccontavo

It is quite certain that the surpassing of the past toward the future always demands sacrifices; to claim that in destroying an old quarter in order to build new houses on its ruins one is preserving it dialectically is a play on words; no dialectic can restore the old port of Marseilles; the past as something not surpassed, in its flesh and blood presence, has completely vanished.

Cuando era niña, cuando era adolescente, los libros me salvaron de la desesperación: eso me convenció de que la cultura era el valor más alto.

Little star that I see, Drawn by the moon.' The old words, just as they were first written... They were a link joining me to past centuries, when the stars shone exactly as they do today. And this rebirth and this permanence gave me a feeling of eternity.

I wondered how many people managed to go on living when there was nothing to be hoped from within.

Tel était le sens de ma vocation ~adulte, je reprendrais en main mon enfance et j'en ferais un chef-d'oeuvre sans faille.

Sí yo mismo no fuera sino una cosa, nada en efecto me concerniría; si me encierro en mí mismo, el otro está también cerrado para mí; la existencia inerte de las cosas es separación y soledad.

All that a stubborn optimism can claim is that the past does not concern us in this particular and fixed form and that we have sacrificed nothing in sacrificing it; thus, many revolutionaries consider it healthy to refuse any attachment to the past and to profess to scorn monuments and traditions.

In the embellished woman, Nature was present but captive.

Es mío solamente aquello en lo que reconozco mi ser y no puedo reconocerlo sino ahí donde estoy comprometido; para que un objeto me pertenezca, es preciso que haya sido fundado por mí: no es totalmente mío si no lo he fundado en su totalidad. La única realidad que me pertenece enteramente es pues, mi acto.

Hay que esperar siempre que el azúcar se disuelva, que el recuerdo se esfume, que la herida cicatrice, que el sol se oculte, que el fastidio se disipe.

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.

No soy una cosa, sino espontaneidad que desea, que ama, que anhela, que actúa.

La tristeza puede llorarse. Pero la impaciencia de la alegría no es fácil de conjurar.

When she does not find love, she may find poetry.

Las mujeres no son solidarias como sexo: ante todo están ligadas a su clase; los intereses de las burguesas y los de las mujeres proletarias no coinciden.

Ter a porta fechada, os lábios fechados: mas o meu silêncio proclama ordens.tu não dizes nada, e eu vou ou não dizes nada, e eu não vou. Toda a minha presença é palavra. Avança então, avança no lodo da noite. Decide. Eu decidi a tua morte e não estamos pagos. Mais ainda. Queria pedir misericórdia: não há misericórdia.