697 Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

I told myself that as long as there were books I could be sure of being happy.

I quickly realized that friendships without tomorrows, and the little anguishes of parting, were part of the pleasures of traveling. I resolutely avoided bores, saw only those who amused me. We spent afternoons taking long walks, nights drinking and talking, and then we would leave each other, never to meet again, and there were no regrets. How simple life was. No regrets, no obligations, my acts and gestures counted for nothing, no one asked my advice, and I knew no other rule but my whims.

Saint Thomas declared that woman was an “inessential” being, which, from a masculine point of view, is a way of positing the accidental character of sexuality.

For the first time I saw her as a dead body under suspended sentence.

I know nothing, nothing. I not only have no answer to give, but I haven’t even found a satisfactory way of propounding the questions.

As we talked in the half-darkness I assuaged an old unhappiness.

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

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

All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.