If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project
Interpretation
The quote conveys that the body is not merely a physical entity but an embodiment of our experiences and aspirations.
Simone De Beauvoir emphasizes that the body should be viewed as more than just a physical thing; rather, it serves as a contextual frame for our existence and the life we aim to build. It represents our connection to the world around us and articulates our personal journey, reflecting the interplay between our identity, desires, and experiences.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-acceptance, this quote can illustrate the importance of perceiving oneself beyond physical attributes.
If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise." (p. 248)
To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.
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.
As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it.
Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. The housewife wears herself out marking time: she makes nothing, simply perpetuates the present β¦ Eating, sleeping, cleaning β the years no longer rise up towards heaven, they lie spread out ahead, grey and identical. The battle against dust and dirt is never won.
We have all had times...when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. ...[I]t is in the valley where we live for the glory of God.
The cat joined the Re-education Committee and was very active in it for some days. She was seen one dag sitting on a roof and talking to some sparrows who were just out of her reach. She was telling them that all animals were now comrades and that any sparrow who chose could come and perch on her paw; but the sparrows kept their distance.
He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.
For much of history it was possible to believe that the great diversity of life on Earth was a fixed creation, that the living world had never changed. But when the first stirrings of industry demanded that fuel be dug from the earth and hillsides be leveled for roads and railways, the Earth's true past was dug up in abundance.
Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.
The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.
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