Self-knowledge is no guarantee of happiness, but it is on the side of happiness and can supply the courage to fight for it.

The human species is forever in a state of change, forever becoming.

There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning.

The knight departing for new adventures offends his lady, yet she has nothing but contempt for him if he remains at her feet.

In 1949, I believed that social progress, the triumph of the proletariat, socialism would lead to the emancipation of women. But I saw that nothing came of it: first of all, that socialism was not achieved anywhere, and that in certain countries which called themselves socialist, the situation of women was no better than it was in so-called capitalist countries.

There was a time, in the nineteenth century, for example, when women spoke mostly about the house, children, birth, and so forth, because it was their domain. That's changing a little, now.

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