Abby Hu

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

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Second Sex )

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

— Simone de Beauvoir

"I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself "

— Simone de Beauvoir

"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."

— Simone de Beauvoir

"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others."

— Simone de Beauvoir

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

— Simone de Beauvoir

"I am incapable of conceiving infinity and yet I do not accept finity."

— Simone de Beauvoir

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

— Simone de Beauvoir

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

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Woman Destroyed )

"Some things I loved have vanished. A great many others have been given to me"

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Woman Destroyed )

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

— Simone de Beauvoir

"Sex pleasure in women is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken."

— Simone de Beauvoir

"Youth and what the Italians so prettily call stamina. The vigor, the fire, that enables you to love and create. When you've lost that, you've lost everything."

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Woman Destroyed )

"Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to."

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Woman Destroyed )

"I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom."

— Simone de Beauvoir

 "On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in her strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself--on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger."

— Simone de Beauvoir

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

"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 absolute truth."

— Simone de Beauvoir ( The Second Sex )

 "The whole world was nothing but an exile with no hope of a return."

— Simone de Beauvoir

"That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing."

— Simone de Beauvoir