Simone De Beauvoir on Mindfulness Quotes

"The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and a sketch of our projects."

"The point is not for women simply to take power out of men's hands, since that wouldn't change anything about the world. It's a question of destroying that notion of power."

"I am unable to believe in the existence of a world without me; it has always been there, with me at the center of it."

"Each of us is responsible for everything and to every human being."

"The present is not a potential past; it is the moment of choice and action."

"The ideal of happiness has always taken material form in the house, whether cottage or castle; it stands for permanence and separation from the world."

"To be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future."

"That is what I have to do: to tell the truth, to make myself heard, to provide a witness."

"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."

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

"I accepted the challenge of existence. I would be my own master."

"It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living."

"A man attaches himself to woman — not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself."

"All oppression creates a state of war; this is no exception."

"Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying."

"Retire into yourself and you will find that you are nothing; move out into the world and you will find that you are everything."

"The word love has by no means the same sense for both sexes, and this is one cause of the serious misunderstandings that divide them."

"No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility."

"Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable."

"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."

"What is an adult? A child puffed up with age."

"Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day."

"The characteristic of the human world is that it is a world of values."

"Existence is its own justification, if it is not to be a pure and simple fact."

"I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take entire charge of me."

"I wished to be a person, nothing but a person. I was not looking for a role."

"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion."

"Regardless of the staggered start, the finish line is the same for everyone."

"If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat."

"To be oneself, simply oneself, is so amazing and utterly unique an experience that it's hard to convince oneself so singular a thing happens to everybody."

"In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation."

"In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid."

"The writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels."