The American woman's inequality with men is proved by her defiant attitude. Simone de Beauvoir More Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir More Quotes From Simone de Beauvoir To show your true ability is always, in a sense, to surpass the limits of your ability, to go a little beyond them: to dare, to seek, to invent; it is at such a moment that new talents are revealed, discovered, and realized Simone de Beauvoir achievement littles discovery You have to start from where you are today and from what can be done. Simone de Beauvoir where-you-are done today I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. Simone de Beauvoir incapable accepting infinity Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority. Simone de Beauvoir inferiority males men The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women. Simone de Beauvoir equality males women I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir 4th-of-july freedom inspirational A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied. And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom. I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison. Simone de Beauvoir recognition able limits I take on a shape and an existence only if I first throw myself into the world by loving, by doing. Simone de Beauvoir shapes world firsts To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude. Simone de Beauvoir political attitude To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job. Simone de Beauvoir jobs funny art In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation. Simone de Beauvoir heterosexuality-is gay men 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. Simone de Beauvoir lobotomy eight want I should like to be the landscape which I am contemplating, I should like this sky, this quiet water to think themselves within me, that it might be I whom they express in flesh and bone, and I remain at a distance. But it is also by this distance that the sky and the water exist before me. My contemplation is an excruciation only because it is also a joy. I can not appropriate the snow field where i slide. It remains foreign, forbidden, but I take delight in this very effort toward an impossible possession. I experience it as a triumph, not as a defeat. Simone de Beauvoir distance sky thinking That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. Simone de Beauvoir insperational generosity inspirational Youth and what the Italians so prettily call stamina. The vigor, the fire, that enables you to love and create. When you've lost that, you've lost everything. Simone de Beauvoir lost-everything vigor fire It must be said in addition that the men with the most scrupulous respect for embryonic life are also those who are most zealous when it comes to condemning adults to death in war. Simone de Beauvoir adults men war Between women love is contemplative; caresses are intended less to gain possession of the other than gradually to re-create the self through her; separateness is abolished, there is no struggle, no victory, no defeat; in exact reciprocity each is at once subject and object, sovereign and slave; duality become mutuality. Simone de Beauvoir struggle self love-is 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. Simone de Beauvoir goes-on want adventure To give space when what one most yearns for is closeness, that is both the great test and great tragedy of love. Simone de Beauvoir space tragedy giving I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves. Simone de Beauvoir heaven fall thinking
