56 Simone de Beauvoir Quotes (On Love, Feminism, Freedom)

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.

Top 10 Quotes – Love – Feminism – Freedom – Visual – Takeaways – Video – Further Readings

Here are 56 of the best Simone de Beauvoir quotes.

You’ll learn a ton from her:

How to challenge social norms
How to live authentically
The value of intellectual autonomy
How to find meaning in your life

Simone (1908-1986) was:

She was a French writer, feminist, social theorist, and existential philosopher
She was the partner of Jean-Paul Sartre (Wikipedia)
She is best known for her groundbreaking book The Second Sex
She was also an active political activist who championed women’s rights

In sum, you’ll be in good hands if you believe in gender equality, responsibility, and freedom.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading her quotes as much as I did.

Let’s begin!

Top 10 Simone de Beauvoir

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

Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. Simone de Beauvoir

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Simone de Beauvoir

To give space when what one most yearns for is closeness, that is both the great test and great tragedy of love. Simone de Beauvoir

I take on a shape and an existence only if I first throw myself into the world by loving, by doing. Simone de Beauvoir

The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another. Simone de Beauvoir

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me. Simone de Beauvoir

If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male’s arrogance made it “a discussion”. Simone de Beauvoir

Man can find a justification of his own existence only in the existence of other men. Simone de Beauvoir

One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir Quotes About Love

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

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

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job. Simone de Beauvoir

They were walking side by side, but each was alone. Simone de Beauvoir

You’re unique like all other women. Simone de Beauvoir

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. Simone de Beauvoir

Authentic love must be founded on reciprocal recognition of two freedoms. For each of them, love would be the revelation of the self through the gift of the self and the enrichment of the universe. 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

Marriage is a career which brings about more benefits than many others. Simone de Beauvoir

Love is then renunciation of all possession, of all confusion. Simone de Beauvoir

Why one man rather than another? It was odd. You find yourself involved with a fellow for life just because he was the one that you met when you were nineteen. Simone de Beauvoir

Related

Simone de Beauvoir Quotes About Femimism

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior. Simone de Beauvoir

When women act like women, they are accused of being inferior. When women act like human beings, they are accused of behaving like men. 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

It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them. Simone de Beauvoir

Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male’s superiority. Simone de Beauvoir

Woman has always been man’s dependent, if not his slave; the two sexes have never shaped the world in equality. And even today woman is heavily handicapped, though her situation is beginning to change. Simone de Beauvoir

If so few female geniuses are found in history, it is because society denies them any means of expression. Simone de Beauvoir

Girls are weighed down by restrictions, boys with demands – two equally harmful disciplines. Simone de Beauvoir

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 precisely of destroying that notion of power. Simone de Beauvoir

That the child is the supreme aim of woman is a statement having precisely the value of an advertising slogan. 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

A man attaches himself to woman – not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself. Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir Quotes About Freedom

To will oneself free is also to will others free. Simone de Beauvoir

All oppression creates a state of war. Simone de Beauvoir

Her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly. Simone de Beauvoir

Anger or revolt that does not get into the muscles remains a figment of the imagination. Simone de Beauvoir

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Simone de Beauvoir

To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision. Simone de Beauvoir

No man can save himself alone. Simone de Beauvoir

More Quotes By Simone de Beauvoir

She was not to look beyond herself for the meaning of her life. Simone de Beauvoir

Habit has a kind of poetry. Simone de Beauvoir

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. Simone de Beauvoir

What is an adult? A child blown up by age. Simone de Beauvoir

One day I’ll be old, dead, forgotten. Simone de Beauvoir

There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning. Simone de Beauvoir

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. Simone de Beauvoir

Art is an attempt to integrate evil. Simone de Beauvoir

In every society the artist or writer remains an outsider. Simone de Beauvoir

When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values. Simone de Beauvoir

To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself. Simone de Beauvoir

In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid. Simone de Beauvoir

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

I was made for another planet altogether. I mistook the way. Simone de Beauvoir

Self-consciousness is not knowledge but a story one tells about oneself. Simone de Beauvoir

Visual For Simonde de Beauvoir

There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one’s conscience. Simone de Beauvoir

Don’t let other people decide who you are. Bob Goff

Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction. Rumi

Key Takeaways From Simone de Beauvoir

Here are 5 simple things we can learn from Simone de Beauvoir:

Think: Simone de Beauvoir emphasized the importance of questioning social norms. But also to think critically about freedom, equality, and existence. “In every society the artist or writer remains an outsider.”
Act: She believed in taking responsibility for shaping one’s life through action, not passivity. She said, “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”
Learn: Simone valued continuous learning and growth, embracing challenges as opportunities for development. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Love: She championed authentic relationships rooted in mutual respect and freedom. She advocated love as a choice, not a chain. “Love is then renunciation of all possession, of all confusion.”
Persist: Simone showed that perseverance in the face of adversity is essential for meaningful change. “I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me.”