Simone de Beauvoir citáty

page 5

„Nie som schopný predstaviť si nekonečno, ale napriek tomu neakceptujem konečnosť. Chcem, aby toto dobrodružstvo, ktoré je kontextom môjho života, pokračovalo bez konca.“

„Život človeka má hodnotu, pokiaľ prisudzuje hodnotu životu ostatných.“

„Život človeka má hodnotu dovtedy, kým pripisuje hodnotu životu iných, a to prostredníctvom lásky, priateľstva, rozhorčenia a súcitu.“

„Zmeňte svoj život ešte dnes. Nehazardujte s budúcnosťou, konajte teraz a bezodkladne.“

„Bola pripravená skôr poprieť existenciu priestoru a času než pripustiť, že láska nemusí byť večná.“

„V určitom zmysle sa tajomstvo vtelenia opakuje v každej žene. Každé dieťa, ktoré sa narodí, je Boh, ktorý sa stal človekom.“

„Ženy nemilujú hrdinu, milujú víťaza.“

„Muž potrebuje ženu, aby prekonal sám seba.“

„Nie je ľahké emancipovať ženu. Pretože v mnohých ženách sa skrýva túžba, aby im boli muži nadradení.“

„Žena sa nerodí ženou: stáva sa ňou. Žiadny biologický, psychický, ekonomický osud nedefinuje podobu, v ktorej sa objaví žena v spoločnosti.“

„Ženy sklamané mužmi sa chcú za nich vydať, je to rovnako dobrý spôsob pomsty ako každý iný.“

„Muž je vždy tak starý, ako sa cíti, ale nikdy nie tak dôležitý.“

„Keď som bol dieťa a keď som bol dospievajúci, knihy ma zachránili pred zúfalstvom: to ma presvedčilo o tom, že kultúra je najvyššou z hodnôt.“

„Namiesto toho, aby si uhájili dynamický a živý vzťah jedného k druhému, staticky sa navzájom pripodobnili; preto si nemôžu ani duševne, ani sexuálne nič dávať, nič vymieňať.“

„Aj ten najlepší vládca má vždy na svedomí stovky mŕtvych.“

„Keď sa človek zamiluje, ukazuje sa takým, akým by mal byť vždy.“

„Manželstvo je niekedy ta najvýhodnejšia kariéra.“

„Adam nebo! nič iného, ako hrubý náčrt; až so stvorením Evy sa podarilo Bohu stvorenie človeka.“

„Keď má človek dvadsať rokov, rozmýšľa srdcom a cíti hlavou.“

„Ľudia si potrpia na prach, ináč by nebolo tak veľa tradícií.“

„Manželský pár je často spoločenstvo, ktorého členovia stratili samostatnosť a nevymanili sa pritom zo svojho osamotenia.“

„Manželstvo zabíja lásku.“

„Moderné manželstvo môžeme pochopiť len vo svetle minulosti, čo v ňom prežíva.“

„Originálny spisovateľ, pokiaľ nie je mŕtvy, vždy vzbudzuje pohoršenie.“

„Pravda môže byť nespravodlivá.“

„Radosti a utrpenie človeka sú primerané jeho zásluhám.“

„Súlad medzi dvoma ľuďmi nie je nikdy daný, musí sa neprestajne dobývať.“

„Úcta k slobode druhého nie je abstraktné pravidlo: je prvou podmienkou úspechu mojej snahy.“

„Uloviť manžela je umenie. Udržať si ho je tvrdá práca.“

„Vážny človek je nebezpečný; je prirodzené, že sa stane tyranom.“

„Vieme, že každý človek je smrteľný, ale nie to, že má ľudstvo zomrieť.“

“When Sartre and I met not only did our backgrounds fuse, but also our solidity, our individual conviction that we were what we were made to be. In that framework we could not become rivals. Then, as the relationship between Sartre and me grew, I became convinced that I was irreplaceable in his life, and he in mine. In other words, we were totally secure in the knowledge that our relationship was also totally solid, again preordained, though, of course, we would have laughed at that word then. When you have such security it's easy not to be jealous. But had I thought that another woman played the same role as I did in Sartre's life, of course, I would have been jealous.”

“They were walking side by side, but each was alone.”

“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.”

“It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself… It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do — or don't do.”

“Even the children of Carmona were divided into two camps, and below the ramparts, among the brushwood and rocks, we battled with stones shouting "Long live the duke!" and others, "Down with the tyrant!" We fought viciously, but I was never satisfied with this game — the fallen enemy rose again, the dead came back to life. The day after a battle, victors and vanquished both found themselves unharmed.”

“Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.”

“After wars peace, after peace, another war. Every day men are born and others die.”

“If I had amnesia, I'd be almost like other men. Perhaps I'd even be able to love you.”

“I was born in Italy on the 17th May 1279 in a castle in the city of Carmona.”

“It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.”

“You made me come to Paris. You pestered me to start living again. Well, now it's up to you to make my life livable. You mustn't let three whole days go by without coming to see me. … You wanted me to take notice of you. Now nothing else matters to me. I know you're alive and I feel emptiness inside me when you're away.”

“Time is beginning to flow again.”

“All agree in recognising the fact that females exist in the human species; today as always they make up about one half of humanity. And yet we are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted to be women, remain women, become women. It would appear, then, that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity.”

“Were we really more advanced than the alchemists of Carmona? We had brought to light certain facts that they were not aware of, we had organised them into the right order; but had we advanced even a step nearer to the mysterious heart of the universe?”

“It is impossible to do anything for anyone.”

“Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.”

“She was beautiful, with a beauty so severe and so solitary that at first it was startling. "Ah! If only there were two of me," she thought, "one doing the talking and one listening, one living and one watching, how I would love myself. I'd envy no one."”

“He had not applauded, he had remained seated, but he had looked at her steadily. From the depths of eternity he had looked at her and Rosalind became immortal. If I could believe him, she thought, if only I could believe him!”

“For the first time in my life, I took part in a real battle between men. The dead did not come to life again, the vanquished fled in disorder; every thrust of my lance helped save Carmona. That day, I would have died with a smile on my lips, certain of having contributed to a triumphant future for my city.”

“The present enshrines the past—and in the past all history has been made by men.”

“It is doubtless impossible to approach any human problems with a mind free from bias.”

“Dare to believe me. Dare!”

“You're unique like all other women.”

“To will freedom and to will to disclose being are one and the same choice; hence, freedom takes a positive and constructive step which causes being to pass to existence in a movement which is constantly surpassed.”

“The humanity of tomorrow will be living in its flesh and in its conscious liberty; that time will be its present and it will in turn prefer it. New relations of flesh and sentiment of which we have no conception will arise between the sexes; already, indeed, there have appeared between men and women friendships, rivalries, complicities, comradeships — chaste or sensual — which past centuries could not have conceived.”

“The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: "virtue", as the ancients called it, is defined at the level of "that which depends on us."”

“We must not believe, certainly, that a change in woman’s economic condition alone is enough to transform her, though this factor has been and remains the basic factor in her evolution; but until it has brought about the moral, social, cultural, and other consequences that it promises and requires, the new woman cannot appear.”

“Cooking is revelation and creation; and a woman can find special satisfaction in a successful cake or a flaky pastry, for not every one can do it: one must have the gift.”

“Woman is an existent who is called upon to make herself object; as subject she has an aggressive element in her sensuality which is not satisfied on the male body: hence the conflicts that her eroticism must somehow overcome.”