Philosophy Quote by Simone de Beauvoir — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.”

“In particular those who are condemned to stagnation are often pronounced happy on the pretext that happiness consists in being at rest. This notion we reject, for our perspective is that of existentialist ethics. Every subject plays his part as such specifically through exploits or projects that serve as a mode of transcendence; he achieves liberty only through a continual reaching out towards other liberties. There is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future. Every time transcendence falls back into immanence, stagnation, there is a degradation of existence into the ‘en-sois’ – the brutish life of subjection to given conditions – and of liberty into constraint and contingence. This downfall represents a moral fault if the subject consents to it; if it is inflicted upon him, it spells frustration and oppression. In both cases it is an absolute evil. Every individual concerned to justify his existence feels that his existence involves an undefined need to transcend himself, to engage in freely chosen projects.”

“What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.”

“In oppressing, one becomes oppressed. Men are enchained by reason of their very sovereignty; it is because they alone earn money that their wives demand checks, it is because they alone engage in a business or profession that their wives require them to be successful, it is because they alone embody transcendence that their wives wish to rob them of it by taking charge...”

“We not only care about creatures subject to pain and suffering, we care about our own character. And that character expresses itself and develops itself--it refines itself--in just those settings in which even the wishes of others cannot defeat the principle that we take to be the grounding of our humanity.”

“Percayalah, bila kamu tidak dapat mengalihkan perhatian pada hal lain yang fana..., dan hanya memikirkan kehidupan itu sendiri, kamu akan gila: karena ia akan mengalahkan dan merendahkanmu secara perlahan.”

“How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?”

“Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look.”

“For the former, activity, any kind of activity, was an end in itself; for the latter, activity was but a progress toward the true end, which was rest, and peace of mind. Action was to be undertaken only when equilibrium was disturbed.”