It was easier for me to think of a world without a creator than of a creator loaded with all the contradictions of the world. Simone de Beauvoir More Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir More Quotes From Simone de Beauvoir Every time a man dies, a child dies too, and an adolescent and a young man as well; everyone weeps for the one who was dear to him. Simone de Beauvoir young men children Sign of old age: distress at all leave-takings, all separations. And the sadness of memories, because I'm aware they're condemned to death. Simone de Beauvoir sadness age memories Work almost always has a double aspect: it is a bondage, a wearisome drudgery; but it is also a source of interest, a steadying element, a factor that helps to integrate the worker with society. Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap. Simone de Beauvoir holiday work retirement The individuals who seem to us most outstanding, who are honored with the name of genius, are those who have proposed to enact the fate of all humanity in their personal existences. Simone de Beauvoir fate humanity names Literature takes its revenge on reality by making it the slave of fiction. Simone de Beauvoir revenge reality fiction There is not a single line in this diary that does not call for a correction or a denial...Yes: throughout these pages I meant what I was writing and I meant the opposite; reading them again I feel completely lost...I was lying to myself. How I lied to myself! Simone de Beauvoir reading writing lying Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift. Simone de Beauvoir adrift library literature There are so many problems. Women can go to work on these as well without giving up their feminism. Simone de Beauvoir feminism giving-up problem Françoise could not help taking a surreptitious glance at Xavière: she gave a start of amazement. Xavière was no longer watching, her head was lowered. Françoise barely suppressed a scream. The girl was pressing the lighted end against her skin, a bitter smile curling her lips. It was an intimate, solitary smile, like that of a half-wit; the voluptuous, tortured smile of a woman possessed of some secret pleasure. Simone de Beauvoir girl skins secret She offered her mouth to him, as if enchanted. A Persian princess, a little Indian, a fox, a morning glory, a lovely wisteria--it always pleased them when you told them they looked like something, like something else. Simone de Beauvoir princess lovely morning The innumerable conflicts that set men and women against one another come from the fact that neither is prepared to assume all the consequences of this situation which the one has offered and the other accepted. Simone de Beauvoir assuming men facts 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. Simone de Beauvoir kings writing men Weakness' is weakness only in light of the aims man sets for himself, the instruments at his disposal and the laws he imposes. Simone de Beauvoir light law men A couple who go on living together merely because that was how they began, without any other reason: was that what we were turning into? Simone de Beauvoir couple goes-on together There are topics which are common to men and women. I think that if a woman speaks of oppression, of misery, she will speak of it in exactly the same way as a man. But if she speaks of her own personal problems as a woman, she will obviously speak in another way. Simone de Beauvoir men way thinking I consider it almost antifeminist to say that there is a feminine nature which expresses itself differently, that a woman speaks her body more than a man, because after all, men also speak their bodies when they write. Everything is implicated in the work of a writer. Simone de Beauvoir body writing men Picasso never thought of himself as avant-garde. I just find it a bad way to think of yourself. Simone de Beauvoir avant-garde way thinking I was struck by the absence, even among very young boys and girls, of any interior motivation; they were incapable of thinking, of inventing, of imagining, of choosing, of deciding for themselves; this incapacity was expressed by their conformism; in every domain of life they employed only the abstract measure of money, because they were unable to trust to their own judgment. Simone de Beauvoir motivation money girl Because we are separated everything separates us, even our efforts to join each other. Simone de Beauvoir effort And without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one's liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living. Simone de Beauvoir blind earth doubt
