One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.

I think there is a great tendency toward autobiography among women today. It is perhaps facile - and I say that even though I have written one myself.

Work would be terribly boring if one did not play the game all out, passionately.

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.

We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible.

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.

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?