55 phrases by Simone de Beauvoir about feminism and love
Great women have marked history thanks to their intellectual contributions to the fight for equality; one of them was French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, who stood out for studying her and fighting for human rights, and who today we consider the precursor of contemporary feminism.
Simone de Beauvoir was a wonderful woman full of contrasts from her birth, who lived a very guided by her ideology and that contributed enormously to the feminist struggle for our equality of Rights.
Many of her teachings are still valid today and live through her reflections. In this article we make a selection of the 55 most outstanding Simone de Beauvoir phrases, which we hope will inspire you to be the great woman that you are.
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55 phrases by Simone de Beauvoir to remember
We present you the best phrases of Simone de Beauvoir, which are the result of her great brain workof her, of the denunciations of inequality of the early twentieth century, of her life so particular to her and finally, of her feelings and essence.
1. The day that a woman may not love with her weakness but with her strength, not escape from herself but find herself, no humble oneself but affirm oneself, that day her love will be for her, as for man, a source of life and not a danger mortal.
A very powerful phrase by Simone de Beauvoir that talks about how we have confused what is love and life as a couple Throughout our history, where love has been more of a pact of convenience than really a union of love.
2. The problem of women has always been a problem of men.
One of Simone de Beauvoir's best-known phrases today, which shows in a few words how women have been subject to the vision of a patriarchal society.
3. The most scandalous thing about scandal is that you get used to it.
Unfortunately that's the way it is, when events for better or for worse are repeated, we end up getting used to them and they stop being scandals.
4. In itself, homosexuality is as limited as heterosexuality: the ideal would be to be able to love a woman or a man, any human being, without feeling fear, inhibition or obligation.
Simone de Beauvoir was always convinced that love is a right that we should all be able to access without the body and what society thinks of the body being a limit.
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5. I kissed her eyes, her lips, my mouth lowered along her chest and brushed the infantile navel, the beautiful animal, the sex, where her heart was beating; the smell of her, the warmth of her made me drunk and I felt that my life was abandoning me, my old life with its worries, its fatigue, its worn out memories.
With this phrase by Simone de Beauvoir we can see the most poetic side of her as a writer while she describes one of her sexual encounters.
6. Between two individuals, friendship is never given, but must be conquered indefinitely.
Indeed, the affective bonds given by our relationships must be constantly cared for and nurtured.
7. Through work, women have been able to bridge the distance that separates them from men. Work is the only thing that can guarantee you complete freedom.
Many years ago and even today we see women who depend entirely on men, because they do not work. The fact of working allows us not only to fulfill ourselves personally but also gives us economic freedom and security about ourselves. Work was essential for Simone de Beauvoir.
8. Make no mistake, power does not tolerate more than information that is useful to it. Denies the right of information to newspapers that reveal the miseries and rebellions.
The philosopher and writer always questioned the true role of newspapers as a means of information and its relationship with political power.
9. Only after women begin to feel at home on this earth, does a Rosa Luxemburg, a Madame Curie, appear. They dazzlingly demonstrate that it is not the inferiority of women that has determined their insignificance.
It is more than clear that when we are able to demonstrate our strength, any idea of inferiority that may have existed over women is totally invalid.
10. The wrinkles of the skin are that indescribable something that comes from the soul.
A different view from the conventional on wrinkles It is given to us by Simone de Beauvoir who considers that our essence is in them.
- Related article: "35 'body positive' phrases to love yourself and your body”
11. You are not born but you become a woman.
This is another of Simone de Beauvoir's most well-known and meaningful phrases, as it confirms her idea that women are not woman until she is given that role in society, so each woman should define with what meaning of the word woman is she identifies.
12. You are not born a woman: she becomes one. No biological, physical or economic destiny defines the figure that the human female has within society; civilization as a whole is the one who elaborates that intermediate product between the male and the castrated which is classified as female.
Nothing better than this quote from Simone de Beauvoir to explain her previous sentence about whether we are born or become women.
13. Happy people have no history.
According to the writer, when we are happy we simply are, you do not have to improve a situation or there is no sense of inadequacy so there is no more story.
14. The nature of man is evil. His goodness is acquired culture.
There are those who agree with Rousseau's idea that man is good and society corrupts him. For her part, Simone de Beauvoir believes that it is just the opposite.
15. Ignorance is a situation that encloses man as hermetically as a prison.
A fairly accurate comparison of the limits that lack of knowledge can put us.
16. Charm is what some have until they start to believe it.
With a bit of irony Simone de Beauvoir exposes what the ego does in people.
17. The fact that there is a privileged minority does not compensate or excuse the situation of discrimination in which the rest of her companions live.
Simone de Beauvoir always exhibited unequal rights in all spheres of society and she fought fervently against it.
18. Christianity gave eroticism its flavor of sin and legend when it endowed the human female with a soul.
The writer's vision of Christianity, sexuality and women.
19. What is an adult? A child inflated by age.
Another of Simone de Beauvoir's most famous phrases that refers to adulthood that cultivates the girl in us.
20. It is lawful to violate a culture, but on condition of making it a child.
With this phrase, Simone de Beauvoir explains that culture evolves and in this development process it must be improved.
21. The secret of happiness in love consists less in being blind than in closing your eyes when necessary.
True love is when we love aware of the other person's flaws and not when we avoid at all costs to see his defects.
22. In a sense, the mystery of the incarnation is repeated in every woman; every child that is born is a god who becomes man.
For the writer, we are all born completely free and as we grow we adapt to social roles.
23. The truth is one and the error, multiple.
Simone de Beauvoir also spoke about one of the most studied topics, the truth, stating that there is only one and the rest are errors.
24. Man is neither a stone nor a plant, and he cannot justify himself by his mere presence in the world. Man is man only because of his refusal to remain passive, because of the impulse that projects him from the present towards the future and he directs it towards things with the purpose of dominating them and giving them shape. For man, existing means reshaping existence. Living is the will to live.
A phrase that highlights our desire to change the world and the importance of the will to achieve everything we want.
25. It seemed to me that the earth would not have been habitable if it had had no one to admire.
For Simone de Beauvoir as for any of us, admiration for others is something fundamental that drives us to be better.
26. Writing is a trade that is learned by writing.
A phrase by Simone de Beauvoir for all those who do not know how to learn to write, as simple as practice makes perfect.
27. Beauty is even more difficult to explain than happiness.
Nothing more true than this phrase, because in the end, beauty is in the one who sees beauty and not in what we consider to be beautiful, so it is totally subjective.
28. The slave who obeys chooses to obey.
With this phrase Simone de Beauvoir tried to explain that even in the most adverse situations we have the freedom to choose one option or the other.
29. The family is a nest of perversions.
Our family is fundamental in childhood to become the people we are, for better or for worse.
- Related article: "The 8 types of families (that exist in our society)”
30. Because man is transcendence, he can never imagine a paradise. Paradise is repose, denied transcendence, a state of affairs already given, without possible overcoming.
For the writer, the struggle for self-improvement is inherent in people, to achieve new things, to improve, to transcend.
31. Far from the absence of God authorizing any license, on the contrary, the fact that man is abandoned on earth is the reason why his acts are definitive commitments.
With this phrase, Simone de Beauvoir refers to the importance of our commitment and responsibility for our actions.
32. It is absolutely impossible to face any human problem with a mind devoid of prejudices.
According to this phrase, in our knowledge process we are creating judgments that we inevitably forget, so we will never be 100% objective.
33. There is no natural death: nothing that happens to man is natural since his very presence puts the world in question. Death is an accident, and even if men know and accept it, it is undue violence.
This phrase by Simone de Beauvoir shows her vision of death.
34. Longevity is the reward of virtue.
Do you agree with this idea of Simone de Beauvoir?
35. There are women who are crazy and there are women of talent: none of them has that madness of talent called genius.
Simone de Beauvoir on the women of her generation.
36. Knowing yourself is not a guarantee of happiness, but it is on the side of happiness and can give us the courage to fight for it.
An idea closely linked to self-love and self-discovery as the key to being happy.
- Related article: "How to love yourself? 6 tips for self-love”
37. Feminism is a way of living individually and fighting collectively.
In this simple way, Simone de Beauvoir describes what for her it must be the way we live feminism.
38. The man is defined as a human being and the woman as a woman: whenever he behaves like a human being, it is said that he imitates the man.
A phrase by Simone de Beauvoir that highlights the macho configuration of our society, our beliefs and even our language.
- Related article: "Micromachismo: the subtle form of machismo that women experience every day”
39. The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed themselves.
This phrase explains one of the biggest problems of machismo and gender violence, and it is that in many cases we are the same women who encourage this type of behavior.
40. One's life has value as long as one attributes value to the lives of others, through love, friendship, outrage, and compassion.
A very valuable lesson from Simone de Beauvoir in this sentence, in which she explains how the way we value others gives value to our own life and not the other way around.
41. Each one of us is responsible for everything and every human being.
Indifference is not the way. In the end, we are all together on this planet and we are all equally responsible for what happens in this world in which we live.
42. No woman should be allowed to stay home to raise her children. Society would have to be completely different. Women should not have that option, precisely because if there is such an option, too many women will take it.
As Simone de Beauvoir already said in other of her phrases, many times we are the same women who promote machismo and unequal rights between men and women.
43. Nobody is more arrogant towards women, more aggressive or dismissive, than the man who cares about his virility.
Another of Beauvoir's feminist phrases in relation to the ego of some men.
44. The left is also dominated by men and they never have any interest in trampling their privileges. The privileged always want to keep their privileges.
With this phrase by Simone de Beauvoir, the motivations of the male leaders of the left movements are called into question.
45. Humanity is male, and man defines woman not in herself, but in relation to him; she does not regard her as an autonomous being.
Another phrase by Simone de Beauvoir that shows how all areas of our humanity, from humanity itself, are configured in masculine.
46. I would like each human life to be pure and transparent freedom.
This is how we absolutely should all live in this world, but we still haven't made it.
47. A free woman is just the opposite of an easy woman.
With this phrase, Simone de Beauvoir responded to so many criticism she received for living as a free woman.
48. The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our understanding of the world and the sketch of our project.
Our body is nothing more than another element to relate to the world, to experience everything that human beings have to offer our essence, our interior.
49. There is a secret to living happily with the person you love: not trying to modify it.
When we truly love someone unconditionally, we love every part of that person as they are.
50. Let nothing define us. Let nothing hold us down Let freedom be our own substance.
With this phrase, Simone de Beauvoir invites us to allow ourselves to be truly free and to live according to that freedom of being who we are.
51. I don't believe in the eternal feminine, an essence of a woman, something mystical. The woman is not born, she is made. There is no eternal feminine from the beginning, they are roles. And that is very well appreciated when studying sociology. The role of men and women is not absolutely determined in all civilizations, there are great changes.
Another reflection that Simone de Beauvoir makes about the misconception that we are born as women and she explains that In reality, it is society that gives us the role of woman, so we are able to change that role that is given to us. gives.
52. I am incapable of believing in infinity, but neither do I accept the finite.
This phrase is a summary of her perception of the eternal.
53. She lives in such a way that nothing you do should deserve the reproach or condemnation of those around you.
An invitation from Simone de Beauvoir about the way we should live, that is, in freedom.
54. Change your life today, don't bet on the future. She acts now, without delay.
Another phrase by Simone de Beauvoir that is actually an invitation to be present and to act in the present. Not to wait for a future but to build it in the present that we have.
55. When I was a child, when I was a teenager, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest value.
And finally, this reflection by Simone de Beauvoir on the value of reading, knowledge and culture as a weapon of freedom.
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