697 Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

The most sympathetic of men never fully comprehend woman’s concrete situation.

It’s only arrogance if you’re wrong.

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.

And it’s the same thing everywhere all the time whether they’re stuffing themselves with chips paella or pizza it’s the same crew a filthy crew the rich who trample over you the poor who hate you for your money the old who dodder the young who sneer the men who show off the women who open their legs. I’d rather stay at home reading a thriller although they’ve become so dreary nowadays. The TV too what a clapped-out set of fools! I was made for another planet altogether I mistook the way.

I could not help but comment to my distinguished audience that every question asked about Sartre concerned his work, while all those asked about Beauvoir concerned her personal life.

That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.

I feel something troubling inside of me which scares me, an exhausting violence. But I accept the great adventure of being me.

I didn’t know the first thing about the people around me, but that didn’t matter: I was in a new world; and I had the feelings that at last I had put my finger on the secret of freedom.

It is because I reject lies and running away that I am accused of pessimism; but this rejection implies hope – the hope that truth may be of use. And this is a more optimistic attitude than the choice of indifference, ignorance or sham.