I. Frost's Selected Quotations

Everything at Amazon by and about: Simone de Beauvoir

I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe.
-- Simone de Beauvoir, quoted from James A. Haught ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief

Christianity gave eroticism its savor of sin and legend when it endowed the human female with a soul.
-- Simone de Beauvoir, referring to when the Council
of Nicea, by a single vote, declared woman to be "human,"

In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength--each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving. It is even more deceptive to dream of gaining through the child a plenitude, a warmth, a value, which one is unable to create for oneself; the child brings joy only to the woman who is capable of is interestedly desiring the happiness of another, to one who without being wrapped up in self seeks to transcend her own existence.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

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.
-- Simone de Beauvoir
It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

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.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

To make oneself an object, to make oneself passive, is a very different thing from being a passive object.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do --or don't do.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

Buying is a profound pleasure.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

The most sympathetic of men never fully comprehend woman's concreted situation
-- Simone de Beauvoir

In the face of an obstacle which it is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid
-- Simone de Beauvoir

The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

However gifted an individual is at the outset, if his or her talents cannot be developed because of his or her social condition, because of the surrounding circumstances, these talents will be still-born.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

It is not in giving life but in risking life that man is raised above the animal; that is why superiority has been accorded in humanity not to the sex that brings forth but to that which kills.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

We always come back to the same vicious circle - an extreme degree of material or intellectual poverty does away with the means of alleviating it.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

That a whole part of the middle class detests me ... is utterly normal. I would be troubled if the contrary were true.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

For him she is sex - absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute - she is the Other.
-- Simone de Beauvoir Second Sex

In masculine hands logic is often a form of violence, a sly kind of tyranny.
-- Simone de Beauvoir Second Sex

Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other over against itself. If three travellers chance to occupy the same compartment, that is enough to make vaguely hostile 'others' out of all the rest of the passengers on the train. In small-town eyes all persons not belonging to the village are 'strangers' and suspect; to the native of a country all who inhabit other countries are 'foreigners'; Jews are 'different' for the anti-Semite, Negroes are 'inferior' for American racists, aborigines are 'natives' for colonists, proletarians are the 'lower class' for the privileged.
-- Simone de Beauvoir Second Sex

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

What is an adult ? A child blown up by age.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

Hatred can at times be a positively joyous emotion.
-- Simone de Beauvoir "The Prime of Life"