102 quotes
We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible.
The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947)
In horror, in terror, she accepted the metamorphosis — gnat, foam, ant, until death.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Every living movement is a sliding toward death. But if they are willing to look it in the face they also discover that every movement toward death is life.
It is doubtless impossible to approach any human problems with a mind free from bias.
The Second Sex (1949)
It was as though some stubborn god spent their time in an immutable and absurd balancing act between life and death, prosperity and poverty.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one's conscience.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
The constructive activities of man take on a valid meaning only when they are assumed as a movement toward freedom.
Existence must be asserted in the present if one does not want all life to be defined as an escape toward nothingness.
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.
The Second Sex (1949)
What is an adult? A child puffed with age.
The Woman Destroyed [La Femme rompue (1967)
You're unique like all other women.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
In our private life as in our collective life there is no other truth than a statistical one.
All oppressive regimes become stronger through the degradation of the oppressed.
Whatever the virtues of a civilization may be, it immediately belies them if it buys them by means of injustice and tyranny.
One day I'll be old, dead, forgotten. And at this very moment, while I'm sitting here thinking these things, a man in a dingy hotel room is thinking, "I will always be here."
All Men are Mortal (1946)
When the bells began to sound the hour she let out the first scream.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Since it is the Other within us who is old, it is natural that the revelation of our age should come to us from outside — from others. We do not accept it willingly.
The Coming of Age (1970)
Human freedom is the ultimate, the unique end to which man should destine himself.
I was born in Italy on the 17th May 1279 in a castle in the city of Carmona.
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Time is beginning to flow again.
All Men are Mortal (1946)