Simone de Beauvoir

"The body is not a thing, it is a way of being in the world."

"To be useful to the world is the only way to be happy."

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

"I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better."

"The point of an authentic existence is that life begins when you stop being afraid."

"To lose confidence in one's body is to lose confidence in oneself."

"It is forbidden to forbid."

"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."

"Freedom is not something that one is born with, but something that must be achieved."

"The ethics of ambiguity requires that we accept our freedom and our responsibility."

"It is striking that the women who succeed in adapting to the world are often the least satisfied."

"There is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future."

"A woman must not accept the appointed role of her society."

"Eating is one of the most important acts of political resistance."

"Love is not just a sentiment, it is an absolute and final fact."

"One cannot say that in France women are encouraged to take up science or technology."

"Gastronomy is a French word that speaks to the passion of the French people."

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."

"The individual is thrown into the world, without having chosen its circumstances."

"The most mediocre of male writers is still, to a woman writer, a kind of male."

"Why is it that girls are expected to aspire to marriage while boys aspire to success?"

"In order to change the world, we must change ourselves."

"It is possible to love a person without wanting to live with them."

"The moral status of the woman is bound up with the economic and social organization."

"No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than certain men who are anxious."

"The point of departure is the shared realization that we are responsible for our lives."

"Liberty is the condition for authentic living."

"We should not understand independence as non-engagement."

"A person who believes in themselves and their path can move mountains."

"The writers who have most profoundly influenced me are those who have risked themselves."