One is not born a woman, one becomes one. |
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. |
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion |
Patience is one of those "feminine" qualities which have their origin in our oppression but should be preserved after our liberation. |
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth |
Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap. |
Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap. |
Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken. |
Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken. |
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. |
Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable. |
Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority |
That a whole part of the middle class detests me... is utterly normal. I would be troubled if the contrary were true. |
That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. |
The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength /each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving. It is even more deceptive to dream of gaining through the child a plenitude, a warmth, a value, which one is unable to create for oneself; the child brings joy only to the woman who is capable of disinterestedly desiring the happiness of another, to one who without being wrapped up in self seeks to transcend her own existence. |