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.
Simone de BeauvoirWhen I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...].
Simone de BeauvoirLiterature in France seems to be undergoing a crisis now, and nothing comes immediately to mind.
Simone de BeauvoirThat a whole part of the middle class detests me... is utterly normal. I would be troubled if the contrary were true.
Simone de BeauvoirIt 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 BeauvoirThe notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity. To declare that existence is absurd is to deny that it can ever be given a meaning; to say that it is ambiguous is to assert that its meaning is never fixed, that it must be constantly won. Absurdity challenges every ethics; but also the finished rationalization of the real would leave no room for ethics; it is because man's condition is ambiguous that he seeks, through failure and outrageousness, to save his existence.
Simone de Beauvoir