Quotes from Simone de Beauvoir

She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.

Since it is the Other within us who is old, it is natural that the revelation of our age should come to us from outside --from others. We do not accept it willingly.

there is a poetry in making preserves; the housewife has caught duration in the snare of sugar, she has enclosed life in jars.

Anyway I know only too well that all life is nothing but a brief reprieve from death.

There has to be a certain relationship between the life and the writing style, and that is really a problem.

Dwelling-place and food are useful for life but give it no significance: the immediate goals of the housekeeper are only means, not true ends.

Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.

For me, the problem of time is linked up with that of death, with the thought that we inevitably draw closer and closer to it, with the horror of decay.

I discovered feminism around 1970-72-precisely the time when feminism began to exist in France. Before that, there was no feminism.

I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.

What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty?

My life was hurrying, racing tragically toward its end. And yet at the same time it was dripping so slowly, so very slowly now, hour by hour, minute by minute. One always has to wait until the sugar melts, the memory dies, the wound scars over, the sun sets, the unhappiness lifts and fades away.

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

She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.

Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.

Be loved, be admired, be necessary; be somebody.

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.

Sex pleasure in women is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.

Women's mutual understanding comes from the fact that they identify themselves with each other; but for the same reason each is against the others.

To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude.

There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.

I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.

On ne naît pas femme: on le devient.