Men create their own gods and thus have some slight understanding that they are self-fabricated. Women are much more susceptible, because they are completely oppressed by men; they take men at their word and believe in the gods that men have made up. The situation of women, their culture, makes them kneel more often before the gods that have been created by men than men themselves do, who know what they've done. To this extent, women will be more fanatical, whether it is for fascism or for totalitarianism.
Simone de BeauvoirI would certainly like to see some young women take up psychoanalysis seriously and reconstruct it from an absolutely new viewpoint.
Simone de BeauvoirTo give space when what one most yearns for is closeness, that is both the great test and great tragedy of love.
Simone de BeauvoirEvery time a man dies, a child dies too, and an adolescent and a young man as well; everyone weeps for the one who was dear to him.
Simone de BeauvoirThe emancipation of women must be the work of women themselves, independent of the class struggle.
Simone de BeauvoirIn fact, people seem to be tired of fiction now. There are so many other ways of exploring humanity - by ethnology, psychoanalysis, and so on. It's a little boring to make up stories. So many people think that it's better to be very close to reality and to recount one's life as it is rather than to fictionalize, as they say, that is to transpose, and therefore to cheat.
Simone de Beauvoir