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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

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Simone de Beauvoir
Age: 78 †
Born: 1908
Born: January 9
Died: 1986
Died: April 14
Author
Autobiographer
Diarist
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Activist
Political Philosopher
Paris
France
Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
Castor
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
Rather
Dimensions
Death
Whereas
Away
Aging
Doe
Absolutes
Contrasted
Giving
Absolute
Transforms
Way
Destiny
Parody
Time
Dying
Dimension
Life
Age
Preserves

More quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

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It is for man to establish the reign of liberty in the midst of the world of the given. To gain the supreme victory, it is necessary, for one thing, that by and through their natural differentiation men and women unequivocally affirm their brotherhood.
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Let women be provided with living strength of their own.
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A Darwinian nation of economic fitness abhors idleness, dependence, non-productivity.
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Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise. (p. 248)
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What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty?
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Old age is life's parody.
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To create a language all of a piece which would be a women's language, that I find quite insane. There does not exist a mathematics which is only a women's mathematics, or a feminine science.
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Self-consciousness is not knowledge but a story one tells about oneself.
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If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male's arrogance made it a discussion
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The earthly meaning of eternal life was death, and she refused to die.
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If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
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Art is an attempt to integrate evil.
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To show your true ability is always, in a sense, to surpass the limits of your ability, to go a little beyond them: to dare, to seek, to invent it is at such a moment that new talents are revealed, discovered, and realized
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You can't address yourself to women by speaking a language which no average woman will understand. In my opinion, it's wrong.
Simone de Beauvoir
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Women aren't more easily swayed by fascism than men, but I believe that their situation makes them in effect more slavish than men.
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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.
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I like everyone who tries to show that madness is, in large part, conditioned by society and particularly by the family, and therefore, strongly affects women.
Simone de Beauvoir
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The way I approached a question, my habit of mind, the way I looked at things, what I took for granted - all this was myself and it did not seem to me that I could alter it.
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A foreign country can best be understood through its literature.
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It must be said in addition that the men with the most scrupulous respect for embryonic life are also those who are most zealous when it comes to condemning adults to death in war.
Simone de Beauvoir